EU-Canada Summit — Press Statement

Brus­sels, 5 May 2010
The EU-Cana­da Sum­mit took place in Brus­sels on 5 May 2010. The EU was rep­re­sent­ed by Mr. Her­man Van Rompuy, Pres­i­dent of the Euro­pean Coun­cil; and by Mr. José Manuel Bar­roso, Pres­i­dent of the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion. Cana­da was rep­re­sent­ed by Prime Min­is­ter Stephen Harp­er. The High Rep­re­sen­ta­tive for For­eign Affairs and Secu­ri­ty Pol­i­cy, Mrs. Cather­ine Ash­ton, and the Min­is­ter of Inter­na­tion­al Trade of Cana­da, Mr. Peter Van Loan, also attend­ed the sum­mit.

Euro­pean and Cana­di­an lead­ers held a busi­ness-like, friend­ly and pro­duc­tive Sum­mit. The lead­ers expressed their com­mit­ment to rein­force the long stand­ing, strate­gic EU-Cana­da rela­tion­ship which is firm­ly anchored by shared his­to­ry and val­ues. The lead­ers focused their dis­cus­sions around bilat­er­al rela­tions, glob­al issues and region­al con­flicts. Lead­ers dis­cussed the EU-Cana­da bilat­er­al rela­tion­ship with a strong focus on the eco­nom­ic part­ner­ship. They took stock of the progress achieved dur­ing the cur­rent nego­ti­a­tions for an ambi­tious Com­pre­hen­sive Eco­nom­ic and Trade Agree­ment that will give a new impe­tus to trade, invest­ment, inno­va­tion and job cre­ation. Lead­ers sent a clear sig­nal that the EU and Cana­da reject pro­tec­tion­ism, affirm­ing their com­mit­ment to reach­ing an ambi­tious, com­pre­hen­sive and bal­anced con­clu­sion of the Doha Devel­op­ment Round. 

Over time EU-Cana­da coop­er­a­tion has extend­ed to fields such as for­eign and secu­ri­ty pol­i­cy and the Euro­pean Secu­ri­ty and Defence Pol­i­cy. Bi-lat­er­al rela­tions thus go beyond flour­ish­ing com­mer­cial ties and cov­er eco­nom­ic, polit­i­cal and social spheres. In this regard, Lead­ers not­ed that infor­mal dis­cus­sions had begun on upgrad­ing the frame­work of our rela­tion­ship in the future, not least in the areas of jus­tice, free­dom and secu­ri­ty. Lead­ers reaf­firmed their unwa­ver­ing com­mit­ment to resolve the remain­ing obsta­cles to achiev­ing the com­mon goal of visa-free trav­el to Cana­da for all EU cit­i­zens as soon as possible.

Lead­ers analysed the glob­al eco­nom­ic sit­u­a­tion. The impor­tance of G20 actions in secur­ing the glob­al eco­nom­ic recov­ery, strength­en­ing finan­cial reg­u­la­tion and super­vi­sion and lay­ing the foun­da­tion for strong, sus­tain­able and bal­anced growth was stressed, as well as the present role played by Cana­da as chair of the G8 and host of the G20 in June 2010. On the non-pro­lif­er­a­tion of nuclear weapons, lead­ers under­lined their deep con­cern about the Iran­ian nuclear pro­gramme and their sup­port for the adop­tion of a new Unit­ed Nations Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil sanc­tions res­o­lu­tion, should Iran fail to give a sat­is­fac­to­ry response to the inter­na­tion­al community’s offer of engage­ment. The EU and Cana­da agreed to work togeth­er towards a sub­stan­tive and bal­anced out­come of the Review Con­fer­ence on the Treaty on the Non-Pro­lif­er­a­tion of Nuclear Weapons, to occur this month in New York, with progress on all three pil­lars of the Treaty: nuclear non-pro­lif­er­a­tion, nuclear dis­ar­ma­ment, and peace­ful uses of nuclear energy.

Lead­ers stressed that both the EU and Cana­da will keep pur­su­ing a high lev­el of ambi­tion to tack­le cli­mate change chal­lenges. They agreed that adap­ta­tion to and mit­i­ga­tion of cli­mate change remains a key glob­al chal­lenge, and will require sup­port­ive ener­gy poli­cies. Coop­er­a­tion should focus on financ­ing mech­a­nisms as well as on sup­port to clean devel­op­ment in third coun­tries. Inte­grat­ing the agree­ments con­tained in the Copen­hagen Accord into the UNFCCC nego­ti­at­ing texts will be crit­i­cal to advance the nego­ti­a­tion for the Unit­ed Nations Cli­mate Change Con­fer­ence at the end of 2010.

Lead­ers expressed their com­mit­ment to deep­en coop­er­a­tion on cri­sis man­age­ment activ­i­ties. Both sides wel­comed the active coop­er­a­tion to date, notably in ongo­ing Com­mon Secu­ri­ty and Defence Pol­i­cy mis­sions in chal­leng­ing envi­ron­ments includ­ing Afghanistan, Koso­vo and the Pales­tin­ian territories. 

In Afghanistan, lead­ers wel­come cur­rent and future oppor­tu­ni­ties to work togeth­er, notably on police reform, and also on bor­der issues through pro­duc­tive fora such as the Dubai Process and the G8 Afghanistan Pak­istan Bor­der Region Pros­per­i­ty Ini­tia­tive. Lead­ers re-affirmed the long term com­mit­ment and sup­port of the EU and Cana­da to the recon­struc­tion of Haiti. They under­lined the impor­tance of inter­na­tion­al donor coor­di­na­tion and of main­tain­ing Hait­ian nation­al own­er­ship of the recon­struc­tion process. The EU expressed appre­ci­a­tion for the strong devel­op­ment focus and pri­or­i­ties of the Cana­di­an G8 Pres­i­den­cy. Lead­ers stressed the need for a coor­di­nat­ed approach to ensure that the Mil­len­ni­um Devel­op­ment Goals are achieved by the 2015 tar­get date. They agreed to con­tin­ue to rein­force EU-Cana­da co-oper­a­tion on devel­op­ment issues in mul­ti­lat­er­al fora, includ­ing in the field of aid effectiveness.

Clos­ing the Sum­mit, lead­ers stressed that the EU and Cana­da enjoyed excel­lent rela­tions and their readi­ness to con­tin­ue dis­cus­sions at the high­est polit­i­cal level. 

Source:
Euro­pean Union