Carney: "Canada and the European Union are stronger together"

Canadian PrimeMinister Mark Carney on Thursday argued that "Europe and Canada are stronger together , "and advocated deepening his alliance with the European Union to strengthen its strategic autonomy, but ruled out that this approach would make both a new" bloc "of powers competing with the United States and other major powers.

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, told the plenary of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, a day after she proposed Canada as the 'first associate member' of the European Union. Because Canada is part of a new era of bilateral relations, a status that does not exist in the European Union, and the proposed status has caused surprise in the capitals.

"Yesterday, President von der Leyen spoke of going beyond the CETA (free trade agreement), towards an alliance forthe future, opening the door for Canada to become the European Union's first partner. We welcome that ambition: polls show that a large majority of Canadians support much closer ties, "he responded to the German conservative's proposal.

 

He doesn't want to create a "third block".

Carney wanted to make it clear, however, that the aim of this approach is not to create a new pole of power that competes with the United States or other great powers. "I want to be precise about what I'm not proposing. I'm not proposing a third block to become a rival to the great powers, only in better ways, "he said.

He explained that the EU and Canada are not "seeking power to subdue others." "On the contrary, we seek resilience so that no one can control our open markets, undermine our sovereignty, threaten our territorial integrity or undermine our freedoms, our democracies and our rule of law."