Remarks by President Charles Michel following the EU-Canada summit in Brussels

It was a particular pleasure, yesterday, to host the bilateral summit with Canada, represented by Justin Trudeau and his team. Canada is an essential ally for the European Union. Our shared values are strong, focused on multilateralism, international cooperation, the rule of law, and the fundamental freedoms we cherish.

There were four items on our agenda yesterday. First: the need to continue our efforts to beat COVID-19 and drive the necessary economic recovery. Second: climate change and the environment. Third: trade, innovation and digital matters. And lastly, we discussed foreign affairs and security.

First topic, defeating COVID-19 remains our top priority. The EU is the largest exporter of vaccines, and we have exported roughly half of our production of vaccines. We have supported Canada's vaccination campaign by shipping roughly 16 million doses to Canada. This represents 60% of all vaccines received by Canada, and until a few weeks ago it was as high as 80%. With Canada, we are stepping up our efforts to ensure universal access to vaccines, diagnostics and treatments. The EU is a top contributor to COVAX with 3.2 billion euros. We also plan to share at least 100 million doses of vaccines by the end of this year, and we have mobilised 1 billion euros to increase global production of vaccines in developing countries. We also took the decision to launch a new Canada-EU dialogue on health. And when we speak about the future, that also means being better prepared for future pandemics. We are working together to strengthen the WHO; and I welcome Prime Minister Trudeau's support for this idea of an International Treaty on Pandemics in the framework of the WHO. The EU and Canada are also banding together to ensure a green, innovative and inclusive recovery that creates good jobs. We support global efforts to provide additional support to low income countries to recover.

We also talked about climate change issues. I want to focus on our shared objective: achieving climate neutrality by 2050. I would also mention that yesterday we had an intensive discussion on two extremely important subjects: carbon pricing, which will underpin our work to ensure convergence on how we achieve ambitious goals, and, related to carbon pricing, green finance is – without question – a further area in which we must work towards convergence on common standards, in order to stimulate private-sector investment through clear targets set by the public authorities at both national and international level.

This year, we celebrate the 5th anniversary of the signing of CETA. This agreement is good for our citizens, for our businesses and for our economic recovery. And we see eye to eye on the need to strengthen, modernise and reform the WTO for the future. Moving forward, we must ensure the security of critical minerals and metal value chains; and we agreed to launch an EU-Canada Strategic Partnership on Raw Materials. We will continue to enhance our cooperation on research, innovation and space.

Lastly, we had the opportunity, following on from the intense discussions throughout the weekend’s G-7 meeting in the United Kingdom, to talk about international security. Today I again want to reaffirm our commitment to international cooperation and multilateralism. And our belief that we have reached a point in the history of international relations at which, more than ever, democracies and liberal societies must stand up and promote our fundamental values. Not just reacting to pressure from authoritarian regimes, but acting to show that our methods of cooperation are effective, and that they enable our citizens to live more prosperous, freer lives. We also had a chance, of course, to go into more specific matters relating to regional situations.

So as you can see, the relationship between the EU and Canada is strong and close, and yesterday’s meeting was a chance for us to provide some added momentum, and to identify specific points on which our teams will continue to work in the months ahead. There is a permanent channel for dialogue between Canada and the European Union, and we have decided to reinforce it because we are well aware of how useful our cooperation is not only for the EU and for Canada, but also as a force for progress in areas of international interest.