Inside the New Canada-EU alliance

Good morning, ma'am Cullen.

CBC News and other outlets are reporting that the EU is dropping this idea of associate member title for Canada from its joint statement.

But when Ursula von der Leyen arrived in Canada yesterday, she was still posting about this title on social media.

What do you think it tells Canadians that there's so much disagreement about what we're even going to call this new relationship with Europe?

I think there's a disagreement about how to call it.

But there is no disagreement about the need to come with concrete results that will make Canada and the EU working together much more closely and with more efficiency.

That's the goal.

But what, again, I take your point that everyone's saying, well, let's get closer.

But the EU is a notoriously complex organization.

One Canadian journalist called it a regulation factory.

If we can't even agree on a name, doesn't it mean that it's going to be tough to actually make some progress on the relationship?

We'll see.

But I think we'll see the result in the coming hours.

about what kind of partnership will be built to the very comprehensive partnership we have already.

A year ago, more than a year ago, in June 2025, at the last Canada-EU summit, we concluded the most comprehensive partnership the EU ever signed with a non-member state.

It's what the EU said at that time.

So we are building from that in all the files we are talking about, about trade, digital trade, supply chain for critical minerals, free mobility of skilled workers.

All of this is already at work, and we'll see what kind of results we have made over the last year and what we intend to do as additional initiatives to go further for the year and the years to come.

One of the reasons Canada is, of course, pursuing these even closer ties is to reduce our reliance on the United States, given the ongoing trade war.

What's one thing you think we could stop relying on the U.S. for and start doing with Europe instead?

Our prime minister gave to Canada the goal to double our exports outside the U.S. over the next 10 years, from 2025 to 2035.

This cannot be succeeded without Europe.

Of course, the Indo-Pacific will be key, Africa, South America.

But the big economy after the US and the Chinese one is the EU.

And if you add to that the UK, Norway, Switzerland, and so on, you have a very, very impressive economy.

Good morning, ma'am Cullen.

CBC News and other outlets are reporting that the EU is dropping this idea of associate member title for Canada from its joint statement.

But when Ursula von der Leyen arrived in Canada yesterday, she was still posting about this title on social media.

What do you think it tells Canadians that there's so much disagreement about what we're even going to call this new relationship with Europe?

I think there's a disagreement about how to call it.

But there is no disagreement about the need to come with concrete results that will make Canada and the EU working together much more closely and with more efficiency.

That's the goal.

But what, again, I take your point that everyone's saying, well, let's get closer.

But the EU is a notoriously complex organization.

One Canadian journalist called it a regulation factory.

If we can't even agree on a name, doesn't it mean that it's going to be tough to actually make some progress on the relationship?

We'll see.

But I think we'll see the result in the coming hours.

about what kind of partnership will be built to the very comprehensive partnership we have already.

A year ago, more than a year ago, in June 2025, at the last Canada-EU summit, we concluded the most comprehensive partnership the EU ever signed with a non-member state.

It's what the EU said at that time.

So we are building from that in all the files we are talking about, about trade, digital trade, supply chain for critical minerals, free mobility of skilled workers.

All of this is already at work, and we'll see what kind of results we have made over the last year and what we intend to do as additional initiatives to go further for the year and the years to come.

One of the reasons Canada is, of course, pursuing these even closer ties is to reduce our reliance on the United States, given the ongoing trade war.

What's one thing you think we could stop relying on the U.S. for and start doing with Europe instead?

Our prime minister gave to Canada the goal to double our exports outside the U.S. over the next 10 years, from 2025 to 2035.

This cannot be succeeded without Europe.

Of course, the Indo-Pacific will be key, Africa, South America.

But the big economy after the US and the Chinese one is the EU.

And if you add to that the UK, Norway, Switzerland, and so on, you have a very, very impressive economy.