(OTTAWA) The partnership and defense partnership pact that Prime Minister Mark Carney will sign on Monday in Brussels with European leaders will be one of the most ambitious agreements ever concluded by Europe with a third country, a senior European Union (EU) said on Friday.
Carney will fly to Europe on Sunday to participate in a Canada-EU summit, scheduled for Monday evening with the president of the European Council, António Costa, and the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
At the G7 summit in Alberta on Monday, Mme Von der Leyen confirmed that the agreement would be signed on Monday in Brussels, qualifying Canada as “key partner”.
“It’s also time to strengthen Canada’s role in rapidly evolving European defense architecture,” added Mr.me von der Leyen on June 16.
At a press conference given on Friday to Canadian and European journalists, a senior European official indicated that the summit would lead to two main results: a joint declaration expressing points of view on global issues, such as conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, as well as the signing of the “EU-Canada partnership agreement”.
“This is an ambitious agreement,” said the official. We have already concluded it with several international partners, but that with Canada would be one of the most ambitious ever signed by the EU with a third country. He will open up new prospects for collaboration on crisis management, military mobility, maritime security, cyberrencies and industrial cooperation in the field of defense. »»
Mark Carney clearly indicated his intention to strengthen Canada’s ties with Europe, while his relations with the United States are put to the weight of customs duties and annexation threats.
Two days after his inauguration as Prime Minister in March, Mark Carney went to Europe where he met French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in London.
It was during these meetings that he seriously started to discuss membership of the new European defense supply plan, called Rearm Europe. In the Throne Speech on May 27, the Carney government is committed to joining this program. He told the CBC, during an interview on the same day, that he expected that Canada will do it by the 1stis July.
PHOTO BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI, ARCHIVES AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Mark Carney with his G7 counterparts
On June 9, Prime Minister Carney announced a massive investment in Canada’s defense budget to bring Canada over the 2 % NATO GDP target that the country has promised-without ever reaching it-for more than ten years.
Membership of Rearm Europe is part of this plan, Mark Carney having repeatedly repeated that Canada could no longer devote all of its defense expenses in the United States.
“We are in close discussions with our European partners to join Rearm Europe,” he said on June 9. It will be an element of diversification. It’s just intelligent. It is best to be diversified. It is best to have options. It is best to have different supply chains and wider partners. »»
The Summit’s Day published by the European Council indicates that the public security and defense market agreement will allow Canada to participate in a European loan program for joint defense projects. This 150 billion euros program, called “Security action for Europe”, or SAFE, is part of the “Rearmer Europe” initiative.
An EU representative explained on Friday that the agreement on public procurement in force, Canada will have to negotiate a bilateral agreement with the European Commission in order to start discussions with the Member States on supply possibilities.
Accelerate the ratification of a free trade agreement
The leaders present at the EU-Canada summit should also discuss world trade and wars that rage in Ukraine and the Middle East. They will also undertake to fully ratify the Global Economic and Commercial Agreement (AECG), the Canada-Europe free trade agreement.
Fen Hampson, professor of international affairs at Carleton University, said that Mr. Carney should also speed up the ratification of AECG. The agreement entered into force in 2017, but several EU member states still have to ratify it at the national level.
“The real challenge is to encourage Canadian companies, but also European, to adopt it […] And to develop their activities across the Atlantic, but this also requires political leadership, said Hampson. The agreement has not yet been fully ratified, but this is a point that (Mark Carney) could perhaps assert with Europeans. »»
After Brussels, Prime Minister Carney will go to Hague for the NATO leaders’ summit, where discussions should advance the increase in the objective of defense spending for NATO members to 5 % of GDP, against 2 % currently.
With information from Kyle Duggan, Dylan Robertson and Associated Press
