PM Carney, von der Leyen float ‘associate member’ status at Canada-EU summit. Live updates here.

Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand met with her EU counterpart in Montreal on Thursday to discuss the importance of their alliance and what it could mean going forward.
Kaja Kallas, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, said the partnership is more important than ever, given the current geopolitical climate.
“There are countries in the world that want to see a world where whoever has the power can take what they want,” Kallas said. However, she added, most countries want a world based on “some kind of rules.”
Kallas said it is important for the EU to collaborate with “like-minded partners” on shared goals, such as advancing AI, education, trade and security.
Anand emphasized Canada’s goal of building its own national resilience.
“We will enter into partnerships and alliances with countries around the world where that enables us to reach our strategic autonomy,” Anand said. “The EU stands at the forefront of that priority list.”
Both agreed the alliance is not solely a response to the effects of Trump’s tariff war on Canada.
“It’s not about any other country. It’s about us... I think our alliance is not against anybody. It’s for ourselves,” Kallas said. 

Prime Minister Mark Carney now says Canada is working to become an "associate member" of the European Union, after largely avoiding that term.

"We're here because we share a common mission. We're in the process of forging a new alliance for the future, with Canada as an associate member," Carney said Thursday, while welcoming senior officials from Brussels to the summit in Montreal.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the term "associate member" is helpful for deepening policy alignment.

"Canada cannot become a fully fledged member of the European Union because of geography. But we both want to bring our relationship to the highest level possible, and this is why we are discussing the idea of Canada becoming the first associate member of the European Union," she said. 

Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon said the federal government's investment in Canadian AI company Cohere will give Canadians "a seat at the table."

Carney announced Thursday that his government will invest up to $1.6 billion in Cohere during the summit with European leaders in Montreal.

"By investing in a company like Cohere, we're not waiting for AI to be built somewhere else, maybe by people we don't know or by some who we don't trust," Solomon said in an interview on CTV Power Play with Vassy Kapelos on Thursday. 

"This will keep Cohere a Canadian company headquartered in Canada. This will keep thousands of jobs here in Canada. This will keep their intellectual property in Canada.”

When Kapelos asked about the size of the equity stake for Canadians, Solomon said he couldn’t disclose that information due to “commercial, sensitive” reasons. 

European Council President Antonio Costa told business leaders at the summit that a digital trade agreement will be approved on Friday.

Costa called it a Comprehensive and Economic Trade Agreement, or CETA, for a digital world. It was touted as making it easier for Canadian and European companies to carry out business across the Atlantic Ocean.

Carney also spoke about the potential to bring in policies that will offer more opportunities for young Canadians to study, travel and work in Europe.

But there was another moment of cultural exchange on the margins of the summit.

Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture Marc Miller brought his European counterpart, Commissioner of Intergenerational Fairness, Youth, Culture and Sport Glenn Micallef out for poutine, who called it “good.” 

Carney and von der Leyen are meeting with a group of business leaders from key sectors to discuss deepened co-operation in order to make business across the Atlantic easier.

Addressing the room, von der Leyen said, “We're very happy to have you here,” adding that it was significant the summit began with a business leaders forum.

“There are companies in the room that are working, investing and creating good jobs on both sides of the Atlantic,” she said.

Carney said he hoped the business leaders would provide insight into where the greatest opportunities for partnership lie.

“Where do you see the main opportunities for partnership? How can we help to build these markets together as a core of a new global system?” he asked the room.  

U.S. President Donald Trump says Canada has been “treating us extremely nicely lately” since his imposition of tariffs on certain goods.

He claimed the U.S. “lost” US$90 billion “with Canada” last year, though he did not say how. He made the remark during a campaign stop in North Carolina, where he later mused on the bodies of water he has renamed, including Lake Ontario.

“I just named a beautiful lake that fronts on O’ Canada,” he said. He added he could change the name of the Atlantic Ocean to the “American Ocean.” 

Carney remained tight-lipped when asked whether the United States has shifted its position on heavy-duty trucks, saying he does not think it is “constructive” to provide a “running commentary” on the negotiations at this stage.

“I’ll just reinforce that there are mutually beneficial deals between Canada and the United States, given the global environment and the trade environment. But those deals have to be mutually beneficial and, above all, they have to be in the interests of Canadians,” he said. 

Pushing back against U.S. President Donald Trump's suggestion that the alliance between Canada and the EU could be a “hostile act” toward the United States, Carney said the partnership will ultimately benefit all countries involved.

Carney repeated his view that a stronger, more independent and more resilient Canada will, in the end, “be a better partner for everyone.”

However, he said “in order to be that, we need to build at home, and we need to diversify our partnerships with reliable partners abroad.”

While Carney emphasized the agreement would be pursued “absolutely in the interests of Canadians,” he said “ultimately, the U.S. will see the benefit.”

Carney doubled down on his view that the name of Canada and the EU’s relationship does not matter in the bigger picture, amid questions about whether Canada will become an “associate member.”

“The nomenclature doesn’t matter. What matters to Canadians ultimately from this new alliance is going to be affordability,” Carney told a room full of reporters.

He stressed that ensuring new opportunities for young Canadians to study abroad, for researchers and companies to access advanced sectors, and, importantly, a renewed national security strategy are more important than the name of the alliance.

“This new alliance is not a marketing exercise. The name doesn’t matter,” he said.

“What matters is that the complementarities of our two jurisdictions strengthen our sovereignty,” he said. 

Canada and the EU are both trying to find an effective response to the geopolitical threats Trump has posed, said Mark Manger, a professor at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto.

"Canada and the EU both are now in this position where the most important ally they relied upon is suddenly not behaving like an ally anymore," he said. Manger said Canada and the EU have an enormous opportunity to expand their relationship, but that it would take time to address regulatory inconsistencies, build new undersea cables linking Canada to Europe and secure common supply chains.

The joint declaration from Canadian and EU leaders, seen by Reuters, also proposes conducting a joint feasibility study on Canadian liquefied natural gas exports to Europe ‌and enabling ⁠young Canadians and Europeans to work across the Atlantic. 

Carney was asked to comment on Quebec Premier Paul St-Pierre Plamondon's absence from his EU-Canada summit.

Carney answered that he has “always” practiced “collaborative federalism” with the provinces, and he will continue to do so. Asked whether he considers Quebec to be a nation, he said in French that he sees the “Quebec people” as a nation, linked by language, culture and the civil law legal system.

Carney is kicking off the first day of the EU-Canada Summit with a visit to the Montreal-based artificial intelligence research centre Mila.
He remarked the building blocks of AI were created in Canada, by Geoffrey Hinton, among others.

The Canadian government is making an equity investment of up to $1.6 billion in Cohere, joining a funding round led by Germany's Schwarz Group targeting $7 billion for the Toronto-based AI lab.

Carney’s appearance comes after von der Leyen said Canada and the EU would collaborate on AI.

"Both Canada and Europe believe this technology should serve people. So, we will work together to tackle head on the safety and security issues of runaway AI," said von der Leyen.
Genevieve Beauchemin, CTV News Quebec Bureau Chief. With files from CTVNews.ca journalist Luca Caruso-Moro and Reuters.

Canada has an opportunity to significantly increase its market share in Europe, with analysis suggesting there could be demand for nearly $60 billion in additional goods exports to the European Union (EU), according to a TD Bank report.

The report, published Wednesday, noted that Canada currently accounts for just one per cent of the goods and services imported by the EU, as regulatory barriers, geography and other factors have kept the two partners from meaningfully expanding their trading relationship.

“These barriers notwithstanding, Canada is well positioned to increase its market share in the EU,” the report said, adding that this week’s summit presents an opportunity to “advance cooperation in priority sectors.”

The report said that under certain conditions, Canadian energy exports to the EU could increase by roughly $50 billion from current levels, and that there are additional opportunities in other sectors including defence and critical minerals.

“European demand increasingly overlaps with Canadian capabilities and the two sides’ strategic interest in diversifying economic ties,” the report said.

“The upside for Canadian exports is meaningful.” 

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre called the two-day summit a distraction and a “grand theatrical meeting.”

“For the next two days, we will be distracted again from the cost-of-living crisis with wall-to-wall media coverage on yet another grand theatrical meeting to sign a bunch of meaningless declarations filled with big words (catalyze, anyone?) and promises to meet again to talk more. No one’s mortgage or grocery bill will come down,” he wrote on X.

He said Carney should instead focus on getting all EU members to sign on to the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), Canada’s existing deal with the bloc.

To date, 10 of the 27 EU member states have not ratified CETA. 

Von der Leyen used both phrases -- "associate member" and "alliance for the future" -- in a social media post Wednesday night.

"Rarely have I looked forward to a summit this much. An ocean separates Europe and Canada. Yet we have never felt closer," she wrote.

"We have a new ambition: bringing Canada closer to us than ever before, as Associate Member of the EU. And we want to take our unique partnership even further. With an Alliance for the Future, we will stand together and respond to a world of growing rivalries. Montreal, we're about to write a new chapter in our shared history." 

Bob Rae, former ambassador to the bloc, said Canada’s partnership pursuit is not about replacing its existing ties with Washington.

“This is all in addition to the substantial relationship we have with the U.S.,” he told CTV Your Morning. “When we look at our trading relationships, we need to expand them around the world.”

Asked about Europe’s tightening import rules on carbon emissions, and the associated costs they could incur on Canadian suppliers, Rae said “Canada would be wise” to embrace them.

“They think that the journey to sustainability is one that they are still supporting,” he said, adding “The outliers are our friends in the United States” and that the global economy is growing greener.

In an interview with CTV Power Play on Tuesday, German Ambassador to Canada Matthias Luttenberg said his country has long supported Canada deepening ties with Europe, but there are worries about what to call the arrangement.

“If you come up with a new concept in the European Union, and you propose something, be it the Commission or somebody else, then of course it takes some time to reflect for all 27 member states,” Luttenberg told guest host Graham Richardson.

“I think we have been a little surprised by the announcement, which doesn’t mean that we cannot agree on it,” Luttenberg also said, adding Germany has other concerns because it uses the term “associated membership” in reference to the bloc’s relationship with countries like Ukraine, for example.

Carney, meanwhile, has cautioned against putting too much emphasis on the nomenclature. Speaking to reporters on Parliament Hill on Tuesday, he said: “What matters is the difference that it will make to lives of Canadians.”

European officials say the exact details of an agreement will not be finalized this week, but that they’re hoping to hammer out those details of Canada’s new relationship in the 27-member bloc for an official announcement next year.

The officials made the comments in a background briefing to reporters ahead of the summit, set to take place Thursday and Friday, also calling it one of the most important summits the EU has ever held.

The officials said the goal is to have the concept ready for endorsement by the next Canada-EU summit next year.

In a Wednesday briefing, Canadian officials said the summit will focus on deepening ties in areas like business, technology, defence, critical minerals and energy.

They said the government would only be tied to a financial commitment through the alliance only if it joins a program like Erasmus+, the EU’s student exchange program.

The officials did not say specifically which EU programs Canada might join. Carney has publicly indicated a desire for Canada to join Erasmus+.

That program has a budget of roughly $41 billion for its 2021-27 funding cycle.