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Chittrothu Vaihali
6 July 2025 |
On 23 June, the 20th EU-Canada summit took place in Belgium. The summit ended with two agreements on strategic defence cooperation and a digital trade partnership. The EU and Canada committed to align with the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA).
What happened at the summit? Who said what?
On 23 June, Europe’s Council President, António Costa and European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, represented the EU. From Canada, Prime Minister Mark Carney represented in the summit. They were accompanied by European Commission Vice-President, Kaja Kallas, Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Anita Anand, and Canada’s Minister of Defence, David J McGuinty, who co-signed the EU-Canada Security and Defence Partnership. Von der Leyen said: “CETA stands as strong symbol of the power of free and fair trade. I must say, 98% of our tariff lines are at zero. I repeat it: zero.” The leaders aimed for sustainable, fair and open trade, based on international rules. The EU and Canada planned to work on a Digital Trade Agreement and accepted the Crawford Nickel Project under the EU Critical Raw Materials Act.
In a a joint statement: “We stand united in our objective to forge a new ambitious…Ensuring reliable and sustainable supply chains is a mutual priority and we have a shared interest in diversifying our supply chains and strategic investment.” Von der Leyen vowed to launch talks to join Canada in SAFE so the two sides could cooperate towards more value added and channel joint investments. Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney said that this partnership would enable them to deliver requirements for capabilities agreed within NATO with efficiency and rapidness and Canada seeks to boost ammunition procurement. The EU-Canada joint statement was, “We will stand together even more firmly in support of peace, stability, and prosperity in the world, including in Ukraine, the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific.”
What is security and defence partnership all about?
The EU-Canada Security and Defence Partnership (SDP) is a bilateral relationship between Canada and EU across a number of security and defence matters, including defence initiatives, support for Ukraine, international peace and crisis management, military mobility and operability, maritime security, cyber issues, hybrid threats, preparedness and resilience, arms control, non-proliferation and disarmament, space security, emerging and disruptive technologies, external aspects of economic security, peace mediation and conflict prevention. The EU Strategic Compass for Security and Defence mentioned "long-standing cooperation in security and defence demonstrates our joint commitment to peace and security." The Statement of the EU and Canada Leaders’ Meeting of November 2023 welcomed “increased Canada-EU cooperation on security and defence”, by enhancing security and defence dialogue, identifying opportunities for joint naval activities and strengthening collaboration on cyber security and the climate–security nexus. The EU and Canada committed to a strong operational cooperation in the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy of the European Union (CSDP) missions and operations. Canada would post a defence representative to the EU while committing to establishing an administrative arrangement between Canada and the European Defence Agency and the European Peace Facility. For Canada, it is the first step to access the EU’s EUR 150 billion SAFE loan programme for defence procurement. A second bilateral agreement would be negotiated to take part in joint procurement of defence goods and services, and for the Canadian defence industry to participate at the same level as EU manufacturers.
How will the latest digital trade agreement contribute to the 2023 digital partnership?
Canada and the EU established cooperation through a Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA) and the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), provisionally applied since 2017. On 07 March 2023, the Leaders of both sides emphasised the digital economies and emerging technologies in advancing sustainable economic growth. Hence, the Canada-EU Digital Partnership was made to collaborate on digital and tech policy issues and strengthen bilateral digital trade relationships. This partnership would enhance cooperation on AI innovation, collaboration on AI Factories, link high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure and deepen research cooperation in AI and quantum. Through the partnership, the countries aim for safe and inclusive platforms, and establish interoperable digital identities and digital credentials to facilitate interactions between our citizens and our businesses, securing international connections between the EU and Canada with other regions. With the G7 Action Plan for “Building a Secure and Resilient Digital Infrastructure,” they would explore new routes of international communication infrastructure to strengthen network resilience such as potential routes in the Arctic or the North Atlantic to improve resilience and access to high-speed Internet, reduce data latency and stimulate data flows between Canada, Europe and other regions. Both jointly promote the deployment of secure, trusted digital connectivity in third countries. The Digital Partnership laid a framework for voluntary bilateral cooperation in the digital area without legal obligations and financial implications on either side. It aimed to deliver joint results in the areas identified, building on existing cooperations, the Canada-EU Strategic Partnership Agreement, the Science and Technology Agreement and CETA's Committees and Dialogues, including the Regulatory Cooperation Forum. Both Canada and the EU face similar challenges in the digital skills gap; hence, they intend to continue dialogue on digital skills and training and promote inclusion. Canada would host the first EU-Canada Digital Partnership Council in 2025. It would be developed through the Canada-EU Digital Partnership Council at the ministerial level, where the Council would meet alternately in the capitals of each side or online on a yearly basis. Further cooperation tasks and related activities in new areas may be initiated and terminated by the Digital Partnership Council in the future. This partnership helps them to address their common solutions and strategy in multiple fora, influencing future EU-Canada summits.
What does it mean?
Their mutual interest lies in reliable and sustainable supply chains that would reduce carbon footprint, making the industries competitive with changing markets, focusing on improving the conservational economies of the EU and Canada with agility and resilience. Hence, the leaders were pushing for full ratification of CETA. The EU accepted the Crawford Nickel Project under the EU critical raw materials act to improve the renewable energy sources, as well as look for a two-way flow of investment and expertise on raw materials. The EU wants to pressure Russia by jointly supporting Ukraine along with Canada. This digital trade partnership is related to the EU’s Digital Trade Act (DTA) which it could provide fair competition for firms as well as provide good markets for consumers to buy digital products at fair prices.
References
“Canada – European Union Digital Partnership,” Canada.ca,12 December 2023
“EU–Canada summit 2025: outcome documents - Consilium,” European Commission, 23 June 2025
“EU-Canada summit - Consilium” European Commission, 23 June 2025
“Impact Statement,” European Commission, 30 December 2024
“Critical Raw Materials Act - European Commission,” European Commission, 2025
“Crawford Nickel Sulphide Project, Ontario, Canada,” Mining Technology, 21 July 2022
“Security and defence partnership between the european union canada,” Government of Canada, 23 June 2025
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