On Tuesday 6 November, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini and Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland advocated that relations between the European Union and Canada be strengthened.
Speaking to press, Mogherini said that the partnership with Canada was "crucial" and that the two parties were "closer than ever". For Freeland, the partnership has never been as strong.
According to the joint statement published at the end of the joint Canada-EU ministerial committee entitled "A progressive and dynamic strategic partnership", the committee reaffirmed the intention of the two parties to continue to collaborate closely in a global environment in which their common challenges are both daunting and systemic, and as such demand coordinated regional or global action. The joint statement highlights deep, wide and increasingly important cooperation.
"Canada and the European Union together are, I would say, in a certain way the centre of the world alliance to preserve and promote a certain way of looking at the world, which is based on cooperation, on multilateralism, on free and fair trade, on human rights and on democracy", Mogherini stated.
"The strategic partnership agreement has encouraged new areas for cooperation like development aid, employment and social affairs", the statement adds.
In a similar way, the statement says that the free trade agreement (CETA) embodies the joint commitment to an inclusive international trade programme and the fight against protectionism.
Speaking to media, Mogherini and Freeland kept repeating the interests and values that are shared by the EU and Canada. They thus committed "to working together to strengthen" a "rules-based international order", "promoting effective multilateralism, the UN being at the heart of their action". The EU and Canada will continue their joint work in the relevant multilateral fora, and reiterate their firm support for maintaining and strengthening the rules-based multilateral trade system, centred on the World Trade Organization (WTO).
"Our work, be it in UN fora, be it on peacekeeping, on security, on the many different crises we have around the world, but also on economic and trade cooperation, on science and technology, on oceans, on climate change – looking towards the COP24 (24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) (...) are all sectors where the cooperation between Canada and the European Union is crucial", Mogherini summed up. The two parties furthermore adopted recommendations on trade, climate action and the Paris Agreement, trade and gender and the promotion of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), according to the statement.
The two parties also reiterated their common commitment to cooperate closely on all urgent international humanitarian crises and challenges to peace and security, including in Russia and Ukraine, in Syria, Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Mali, Venezuela and Burma. They stated that their cooperation on security and defence was part of the strategic partnership between Canada and the EU.
Both parties also want to strengthen their cooperation in election observation throughout the world. The committee thus called on officials to develop a new administrative arrangement on Canada's participation in the EU's election observation missions.
The EU and Canada are also determined to deepen their cooperation in the fight against hybrid threats, cybersecurity and strategic communications. They took note of the satisfactory progress in the ongoing negotiations on the Canada-EU agreement on passenger name records (PNR) in order to find appropriate solutions to the concerns of the European Court of Justice.
The two parties furthermore discussed climate change and recognise "the evident link" between climate and energy. In addition they encouraged their respective experts to conclude a partnership on oceans. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)