‘Associate member’ or ‘unique alliance,’ Carney jets to EU in search of new and deeper ties

OTTAWA — Some have called it an “associate memberships.” Others, a historic deeper partnership. Prime Minister Mark Carney described it as a “unique alliance.”

No matter what it’s called, one thing is for certain: Carney is heading to the European Parliament this week with the intention of pitching a whole new relationship directly to elected representatives of the massive block of 27 European countries.

On Tuesday, Carney will leave Toronto and fly to Strasbourg, France, to hear EU President Ursula von der Leyen deliver her annual “State of the European Union” speech at the European Parliament on Wednesday. He will also make a quick in-and-out trip to the U.K. to meet new Prime Minister Andy Burnham.

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He will then deliver his own speech to EU representatives on Thursday, one a senior government official said will serve to deliver a message that Canada wants to “create a deeper alliance” on a range of files including trade, defence and “people-to-people” ties (culture, travel, etc.).

“I don’t expect any massive deliverables,” said the source, who requested anonymity to speak candidly. “If you’ve paid attention to anything the prime minister has been saying for the last 18 months, none of what he will say in his Strasburg speech is going to be a surprise.”

While many expect Strasburg to be a redux of Carney’s now-famous Davos speech last January, in effect it’s just setting the table for a much bigger feast for the prime minister: a EU-Canada Summit in Montreal in late October.

The summit is where Carney’s government is expected to start putting ink to paper, signing agreements that aim to facilitate travel mobility for Canadian workers, students and travellers to the EU, increase collaboration on artificial intelligence and get more Canadian energy to Europe.