Canada’s newly proposed associate membership in the European Union will help secure sovereignty and freedom for the country amid a “ferocious storm,” Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada told the European Parliament on Thursday.
Mr. Carney said that the broad alliance outlined by a top E.U. leader on Wednesday would strengthen core areas of life on both sides of the Atlantic, and shield Europeans and Canadians from being dominated.
But, he said, Canada and the European Union were not looking to become another superpower.
“I am not proposing a third bloc in order to become a great-power rival only with better manners,” he said, speaking at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France. “We do not seek power to dominate others.”
The announcement that Canada and the European Union were beginning negotiations for a unique kind of alliance, the closest the bloc of 27 nations would have with any nonmember state, highlighted the deep desire for the traditional allies of the United States to seek stability and prosperity together as President Trump remakes the American role in the world.
On Wednesday, Mr. Trump threatened to punish the European Union for offering such a deep connection with Canada, calling it a “hostile” act.
Mr. Carney suggested that Europe and Canada were seeking to band together only “so that no one can control our open markets, impair our sovereignty, threaten our territorial integrity, or undermine our freedoms, our democracies, our rule of law.”
Mr. Trump has instigated a trade war against Canada, the United States’ closest ally and second-largest trading partner, and routinely said that he wanted the northern neighbor to become the 51st state. He has also pulled the United States away from the traditional close alliance with the European Union, imposing tariffs and barriers to trade, and weakening the NATO defense pact by threatening to drastically cut the American contribution even as Russia’s war in Ukraine rages on.
Canada and the European Union will work to deepen their link through treaties and joint policies in a vast range of policies, Mr. Carney said. He proposed, for example, that youth from both Canada and the bloc be able to travel and study in each other’s territories through participation in the European Union student-mobility program, Erasmus. That program is credited with building generations of young Europeans with joint identities and experiences.
Mr. Carney’s vision for how the European Union and Canada can work together also extended to major, foundational parts of their economies and society. He said the two should launch a “deep cooperation in the full range of strategic capabilities,” including industries involving critical minerals, defense, A.I. and computing capabilities, and energy security. He also suggested the bloc and Canada could work on managing payments systems.
The question of who controls the data and core infrastructure for aspects of daily life like payments systems has been worrying policymakers in the European Union and Canada, whose societies are dependent on systems controlled by the United States or by American companies. That concern is front and center as the debate grows about the future of artificial intelligence.
“Canada and Europe can join forces to develop A.I. safety protocols, coordinate common standards and strengthen transparency, while developing applications so our governments and companies can serve our citizens better,” Mr. Carney said.
He added that Canada is endowed with major critical mineral and energy resources, which the country wants to export to markets in the European Union. The two already have agreements in place for such collaboration. Earlier this year, Canada secured a major contract to sell liquefied natural gas to Germany.
Mr. Carney, who made extensive references to the deep bonds between Europe and Canada through their joint history and experience fighting side-by-side in wars, framed this new cooperation as existential.
“Freedom and life must be earned every single day,” he said. “Every day. Not once in 1945, or 1956, or 1989. Every day, including this one.”
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