Carney calls for closer strategic autonomy, trade, student mobility ties with Europe
Carney now speaks in more detail about what he thinks should come from Canada’s new, strong relationship with the EU.
He says Canada and Europe “should secure our strategic autonomy through deep cooperation in the full range of strategic capabilities, including critical minerals, defence, industrial capacity, AI and compute, energy, security, space and payments.”
He wants the two sides to “move towards seamless digital trade and non-agricultural goods and a wide range of services.”
He also says he wants to see deeper people to people ties, “allowing our youth to work, study and live where they want.”
He specifically suggests Canada joining Erasmus+ student exchange scheme and Horizon research scheme.
Key events
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Carney calls for closer ties between Canada and EU in contrast to increasingly assertive superpowers – summary
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Carney calls for ‘transatlantic forest’ of values and free people
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EU-Canada alliance not meant to ‘propose third bloc, a great power rival, only with better manners’
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Carney calls for closer strategic autonomy, trade, student mobility ties with Europe
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Carney welcomes suggestion Canada could become EU’s associate member
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‘Diversity confers advantage’ in times of shock and crisis, Carney says
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‘Europe and Canada are stronger together,’ Carney says
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‘We are not fairweather allies,’ Carney says as he stresses EU-Canada links
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Canadian PM Mark Carney set to address European parliament – watch live
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EP’s Metsola suggests ‘associate membership’ could become open door for closer relations with other countries
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French president calls party leaders for crisis talks on Middle East, Ukraine, energy market
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Ask your questions: Q&A on Germany, Merz, state elections and what’s next
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Germany’s Merz faces tricky state election in Berlin, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania this weekend
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EU has ‘never been as attractive as it is today,’ enlargement commissioner says
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Nato leader warns of ‘most dangerous and complex security environment in a generation’
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‘Not up to the US to choose political and geopolitical direction of the Europeans,’ French minister says
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Ask your questions: Q&A on Germany, Merz, state elections and what’s next
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Morning opening: Trump threatens Europe, again
Carney calls for closer ties between Canada and EU in contrast to increasingly assertive superpowers – summary
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Canadian prime minister Mark Carney has called for closer ties between Canada and the EU on trade, energy, “pooled” sovereignty, mobility in a warmly received speech at the European parliament in Strasbourg.
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Using the comparison of a resilient forest able to withstand crises, he proposed to “deepen those roots, widen this canopy, and grow a transatlantic forest under which our citizens can flourish as free people on free ground every single day” (12:10).
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He said he was not “proposing a third bloc” to challenge “great power rivals, only with better manners,” but an alliance of resilient nations “principled enough that our strength reinforces international law rather than seeks to replace it” (12:09).
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He said the strengthened partnership was needed amid a “ferocious storm” in the world caused by increasing weaponisation of trade and financial markets, technology, and ever-more assertive Big Tech platforms challenging the existing world order. “A single tree will come down in it; a forest will not,” he said (11:56).
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He set out possible areas of cooperation on strategic autonomy, critical resources, digital trade and services, student mobility, academic research cooperation (11:58, 12:00, 12:04, 12:07).
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He welcomed the EU’s proposals of “an associate membership” of the bloc for Canada (12:02).
Carney calls for ‘transatlantic forest’ of values and free people
Carney ends with a call to “deepen those roots, widen this canopy, and grow a transatlantic forest under which our citizens can flourish as free people on free ground every single day.”
He gets a long, standing ovation.
This speech landed very, very well here.
EU-Canada alliance not meant to ‘propose third bloc, a great power rival, only with better manners’
Carney says he “wants to be precise about what I am not proposing. I’m not proposing a third bloc in order to become a great power rival, only with better manners.”
“We do not seek power to dominate others. On the contrary, we are pursuing resilience. So no one, no one can control our open markets, impair our sovereignty, threaten our territorial integrity or undermine our freedoms, our democracies, our rule of law.”
He says “a Canada EU alliance would create a beacon for other democracies, an alliance not defined by what we oppose, but about what we are for: freedom, solidarity, prosperity, sustainability.”
“An alliance that builds resilience for what it allows us to do; for our citizens and our citizens to do for themselves; an alliance strong enough so that no one can dictate our choices, and alliance open enough that others can join an alliance principled enough that our strength reinforces international law rather than seeks to replace it.”
He says that on critical materials, Canada could help with access as it’s “among the top producers of the ten most essential for the energy transition”.
He also talks about how Canada could help the EU with its energy security, including LNH and hydrogen “at large scale to support Europe’s energy security, including by developing and leveraging new port infrastructure in our High North and on our East coast.”
He also talks about “pooling sovereignty” on compute capacity, AI and transparency, and calls for closer integration for financial services.
Carney calls for closer strategic autonomy, trade, student mobility ties with Europe
Carney now speaks in more detail about what he thinks should come from Canada’s new, strong relationship with the EU.
He says Canada and Europe “should secure our strategic autonomy through deep cooperation in the full range of strategic capabilities, including critical minerals, defence, industrial capacity, AI and compute, energy, security, space and payments.”
He wants the two sides to “move towards seamless digital trade and non-agricultural goods and a wide range of services.”
He also says he wants to see deeper people to people ties, “allowing our youth to work, study and live where they want.”
He specifically suggests Canada joining Erasmus+ student exchange scheme and Horizon research scheme.
Carney welcomes suggestion Canada could become EU’s associate member
Carney says”the ecosystem we’ve built is not yet equal to the ferocity of the changing climate, and nor is it moving fast enough to match the speed of the upheaval.”
He says he welcomes von der Leyen’s suggestion that Canada could become the EU’s first associate member.
He says “polling shows that an overwhelming majority of Canadians support much closer ties with Europe.”
Carney says in their relationship, Europe “brings so many things market power, research depth, advanced manufacturing, the ability and the will to set standards that the world frequently adopts a defence industrial base that’s being rebuilt at speed,” as “Canada brings energy at huge scale and in every form that the transition requires.”
“We have one of the world’s largest endowments of critical minerals, deep capabilities in space, AI and quantum. Amongst the strongest banking systems and the most expert pension capital. We have unique Arctic geography and privileged access to both Atlantic and Pacific networks.
Where our strengths differ, they complement where they overlap. They create scale. We should build on each other’s strengths deliberately, systematically and rapidly.”
He hails the success of CETA trade deal – even though 10 EU countries are yet to ratify it.
‘Diversity confers advantage’ in times of shock and crisis, Carney says
Carney says countries should be “bold and deliberate” about forming its alliances, and “not be cowed by the perceived scale of the task.”
“Just as dominance is the arrogance of the hegemon, perfection is the enemy of the good. The economics of this are clear: the leverage of the powerful and an exploitative relationship collapses well before complete independence is achieved.
Because diversity confers advantage. The objective is not self-sufficiency, it’s collective resilience.”
‘Europe and Canada are stronger together,’ Carney says
Carney says “Canada and the European Union can anchor our ground to hold our values while forming a protective canopy under which our citizens can thrive.”
“This is about sovereignty, our ability to live as we wish. It’s about the freedoms we must fight for every day, because sovereignty requires resilience, the ability to withstand shocks.”
He continues:
“Sovereignty today goes beyond being able to feed, fuel and defend ourselves. It now requires secure access to AI, semiconductors, critical minerals, payment systems, clean energy technologies, vaccines, space based communications and we all have important gaps in these strategic capabilities, and we each must rely on individual nations or individual companies to fill them.
And that creates vulnerabilities, particularly when supposedly global companies prove national in the breach.
Closing these gaps is not possible alone, but it’s very achievable.
Collectively, Canada and Europe are each strong. Europe and Canada are stronger together.”
He continues:
“Canada and Europe are not bound by geography. Even though our Danish friends know that we share a 3000 kilometre border in the Arctic. We are bound by an affinity elective, chosen, renewed and stronger for being so.”
He warns that “our societies are battered by new storms.”
“The disruption caused by climate change, the erosion of democratic norms, the weaponization of trade, the multilateral organisations we used to count on have been weakened …
Today, it is hard to reconcile sovereignty and openness. Economic integration is now being weaponized. Tariffs being used to exert pressure. Financial mechanisms have been used for coercion. Supply chains constitute weak points to be exploited. Technology is transforming the nature of warfare, the structure of our economies and states ability to govern. Tech platforms aspire to sovereignty. They want to set access rules. They want to dictate the rules for regulation and even circumvent them. They want to control our data, spread disinformation, and steal our children’s childhoods.
This combination is a ferocious storm. A single tree will come down in it. A forest will not.
And that’s because beneath the forest floor, the roots of an oak intertwine with those of its neighbours, exchanging nutrients, adding strength to strength, creating a resilient, self-sustaining ecosystem.”
He gets a warm applause.
‘We are not fairweather allies,’ Carney says as he stresses EU-Canada links
Carney begins by talking about historical deep ties between Europe and Canada, and recalls a Goethe quote saying “freedom and life must be earned every single day.”
“Not once in 1945, or 1956, or 1989. Every day, including this one,” he says.
He recalls a story of Canadian Lt Leslie Miller, who gathered “a handful of acorns from the shattered European landscape” during the first world war in 1917, carried them home, planted in Ontario and they grew into a majestic forest – with some of them laster repatriated to France and replanted in the same place where they were born.”
He says “seeds, values, ideas, trade, people and progress carried back and forth across the Atlantic for centuries.”
He continues:
“We are not fairweather allies. We do not pursue zero sum deals. Our commitment to the rule of law and our unyielding defence of human dignity, individual freedom and democracy share the same deep roots, the same unwavering dedication.
We hold common values for which we have always fought, and in whose defence we must always remain vigilant. We believe that a strong economy is not an end in itself, but a means to a just society. We are committed stewards of our natural heritage.”
As Carney walks to the podium, someone starts chanting “USA, USA.”
Not a great start.
He laughs it off.
After a brief introduction by European parliament president Metsola stressing the links between Europe and Canada, Carney is finally about to start.
Carney is in, talking to various EU lawmakers.
Greens’ co-leader Terry Reintke is even dressed for the occassion, wearing a jersey of the Canadian hockey team.
He should be starting his speech shortly.
Canadian PM Mark Carney set to address European parliament – watch live
Canadian PM Mark Carney is about to speak at the European parliament after European Commission Ursula von der Leyen suggested yesterday the country could become an “associate member” of the EU.
You can watch along live here:
And I will obviously bring you all the key lines here.
EP’s Metsola suggests ‘associate membership’ could become open door for closer relations with other countries
European Parliament president Roberta Metsola spoke about the commission’s proposal of an “associate membership” for Canada on Euronews earlier this morning.
She said the new third status – different to a member state or a candidate state – could open the door for closer relations with other countries, such as Australia or New Zealand.
She said it was encouraging to see “huge” interest in Canada given the close links.
Metsola insisted the emerging partnership was not just in response to US president Donald Trump’s ever-more assertive positions on trade, and that “it has always been a real friendship.”
“We are not talking about this as against anyone or any country in particular, but when friends come to us and say, let’s do more, then we will be the first open to open the door,” she said.
The EP president also insisted there was no reason for retaliation from the US.
