Listen to this article
Estimated 4 minutes
The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.
Ahead of this week’s Canada-European Union summit in Montreal, Prime Minister Mark Carney said both parties are hammering out a “new, ambitious alliance,” after pledging deeper ties with Europe last month.
“An alliance that builds resilience for what it allows us to do for our citizens, and our citizens to do for themselves,” Carney said in a written statement on Sunday. “An alliance strong enough so that no one can dictate our choices, and an alliance open enough that others can join.”
Former Liberal leader Stéphane Dion — who was special envoy to the EU from 2017 to 2025 — made clear that Canada needs to come out of this week’s summit with nothing short of something tangible.
“What we need to see now is concrete results in all these files: trade, science, defence and security, artificial intelligence — concrete results of this partnership we have with the EU,” Dion told CBC’s David Common on Rosemary Barton Live Sunday morning.
“If it’s, again, a kind of a communiqué at the end that would say ‘we will continue to continue,’ that would be very depressing.”
Dion pointed to student and professional mobility between Canada and the EU as another area of improvement.
In his speech to the European Parliament last month, Carney showed clear interest in Erasmus+, a popular European exchange program that includes students and workers.
Stéphane Dion speaks to reporters at the Canadian Embassy in Paris on Feb. 10, 2025. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)
Dion also said he wants to see action to put Canada’s existing free trade deal with the EU — the Canada-European Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) — into full effect.
CETA was signed in 2016 and most of the agreement, aside from its investment chapter, took effect provisionally in 2017. All member states need to approve CETA for it to take full effect and, as of now, nine EU member states have not ratified the treaty in their respective legislatures: Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy and Poland.
Ahead of the summit, Canada and the EU are working on a digital trade agreement to ease business transactions across borders by smoothing frictions around e-signatures and e-contracts, paperless trade, secure cross-border data flows, duties on electronic transmissions and e-commerce.
A new kind of partnership
Last month, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she wanted to open the door for Canada to become the first “associate member” of the EU.
Carney welcomed the proposal’s “ambition,” but opted for the term “alliance of the future,” when he spoke to the European Parliament a day later.
Jonathan Wilkinson, Canada’s incoming ambassador to the European Union, says ‘we’re not there’ after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen offered to open the door to associate membership. ‘What we’re focused on is actually driving results,’ he said, adding the government will ‘eventually’ turn to how to describe the relationship.
“I’m not sure that this expression of an associate membership will fly,” Dion said, noting that the term is up against resistance both in Canada and Europe.
“It sounds like if Canada was sending part of its sovereignty to Brussels, and there is no appetite for that in Canada,” Dion continued. “In Europe, it’s like if Canada would have the advantages of the union without the obligations that come with it regarding financing, regarding regulation alignment.”
Dion instead suggested Canada could become an “official observer,” offering reciprocity to the bloc while protecting Canadian interests. Observers have a limited membership where they can’t vote or fill an elected position within the European Parliament’s organization.
He also said an improvement to the Canada-EU partnership would be full membership in the European Political Community, a forum where European countries beyond the member states meet twice a year.
Dion said the European Political Community “would welcome Prime Minister Carney as the most European of non-European countries,” and Canada could take part without commitments like financing or regulatory alignment.
