The EU seeks a relationship without labels with Canada: more than a partnership, but without reaching membership
"Without labels". "We do it and then we’ll see". "I’m more into going with the flow". "Why do we have to put a name to ours?". In times of open relationships and polyamory, commitment seems to be out of fashion. The European Union knows this well, which, a few hours away from sitting down at the table with Canada, still "does not quite know what it wants". A summit that had been scheduled under the premise of "we need to talk", after President Ursula von der Leyen offered a kind of associated membership, and which is now heading toward "it’s not you, it’s me".
Just a few hours before the community leader, together with the President of the European Council, António Costa, landed in Ottawa, the diplomatic delegations were still failing to reach an agreement on the exact terms of the final conclusions. "We are talking about a broader and deeper political and institutional partnership, and about building the closest partnership ever seen between the EU and Canada", community sources now explain.
At first, what Brussels was proposing was to declare the North American country an "Associated Member State", leaving room for later "works of imagination" to flesh out the details of this collaboration. However, the formula has not entirely convinced all the member states.
As Demócrata has been able to confirm, capitals such as Rome or Athens showed their dissatisfaction during the preparatory diplomatic meetings for the summit. The cabinets then began referring to the partnership as an "Alliance for the Future", a less legally binding denomination, but one that keeps intact the political ambition of the proposal.
"What we are trying to do is create a common space for prosperity and economic security", a diplomat summarizes in the corridors of the European Council.
Friends with benefits: a partnership without accession
"A partnership without accession", the consulted sources summarize. Until the very last moment, the negotiating teams have been working to give content to "a partnership that comes closer to membership than we have ever done before". An unprecedented formula with which the European Union seeks to strengthen its ties with Ottawa without resorting to the traditional mechanisms of community integration.
The intention is for this new relationship to be structured around three major pillars: policies, programs, and governance. Costa considers that both powers have been "for a long time close friends", so the time has come to elevate the relationship "to the next level with the launch of the Alliance for the Future".
At the political level, the two sides aspire to deepen their collaboration in areas such as climate, energy, artificial intelligence, innovation, or security. To this end, a consultation system would be established that would allow both powers to coordinate "at key stages, from conception to implementation" of their respective initiatives, with the aim of "limiting any barrier".
Brussels also seeks for Ottawa to participate more fully in community programs, expanding cooperation under initiatives such as Horizon Europe or Erasmus+. The Europeans want "our people to be able to study, research, and innovate together", thereby reinforcing an integration that would not be limited to diplomatic relations between the respective executives.
An institutional architecture still to be defined
The last edge of the equation is the institutional framework. Von der Leyen and Costa will propose establishing regular consultations between the Canadian Government and the European Commission. In fact, the president of the community executive will be accompanied during her visit by four executive vice presidents and six commissioners, a delegation that reflects the cross-cutting dimension that Brussels intends to give to this new stage.
The same sources speak of extending the collaboration to other institutional levels: "That parliaments carry out parliamentary consultations, that the regions speak to each other, that the courts speak to each other".
It would therefore be about building a structure of cooperation that transcends bilateral meetings between leaders and makes it possible to establish permanent channels of dialogue between the different institutions of both territories.
"Let us be honest, it is an underexplored territory", recognizes a senior diplomat familiar with the details of the meetings prior to the appointment. Despite this, the negotiators set as their objective to deepen in this direction over the next twelve months, working with "ambition, confidence, creativity and vision".
The latest draft conclusions of the summit calls for "establishing an even closer relationship". After receiving the green light from the Twenty-Seven, Von der Leyen, Costa and Canada will seal an agreement that "will make it possible to coordinate our responses to shared challenges".
In this way, both parties will commit to giving "continuity to these exchanges through periodic summits and joint ministerial cooperation committees". The intention is for the new alliance not to be reduced to a political declaration, but instead to have stable mechanisms to develop and monitor the commitments undertaken.
From CETA to digital trade: a relationship that also looks at companies
The EU sees Canada as a reaffirmation of its policy of cooperation "in a world of growing uncertainty". An approach that will also have consequences in areas that are not strictly political, especially in economic and trade relations.
In this sense, both parties plan to seal a "historic agreement" on digital trade, conceived as a kind of extension of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), which currently underpins much of the exchanges between both markets.
Notably, the summit will also host a forum of business leaders attended by the two community leaders, with the aim of creating a permanent structure of corporate commitment that will include the chief executives of a dozen of the main Canadian companies.
"Our commitment to Canada in emerging technologies ranges from artificial intelligence and quantum computing to supercomputing," explain community sources from the Schuman roundabout.
Currently, under CETA, both powers maintain tariffs abolished on 98% of tariff lines, in addition to having agreed to the gradual elimination of practically all the remaining ones. A trade base on which Brussels intends to build a deeper relationship, extending cooperation toward strategic sectors and emerging technologies.
Collaboration is not limited to the economic sphere either. Canada is, moreover, the only non-European country participating in the security initiative for Europe (SAFE), the community loan instrument aimed at mobilizing investments in defense and promoting joint acquisitions of military equipment by the participating States.
Carney and the search for a third way without becoming a third bloc
The Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, already made clear the foundations of this new relationship during his September address to the European Parliament.
"I am not proposing a third bloc to become a rival of the great powers, only one with better manners," he then stated, trying to differentiate his proposal from those who use "power to dominate others".
Canada and the European Union, the Canadian leader argues, must jointly reinforce their resilience "so that no one can control our open markets". A claim for cooperation between partners that share economic and strategic interests, but that also seek to reduce their exposure to outside dependencies.
According to Carney, "the influence of the powerful in an exploitative relationship collapses long before complete independence is reached".
It is precisely on that premise that Brussels and Ottawa will try to build their new alliance: a closer relationship politically, economically, and institutionally, although still without a definitive legal formula that would allow it to be named. For now, the European Union seems clear that it wants to take the next step with Canada. What it has still not resolved is how exactly to define its own.