OTTAWA — The European Union’s ambassador to Canada says the bloc is crafting a new partnership with Ottawa unlike anything that currently exists.
“What we have in mind is something different from what we have with other countries,” Geneviève Tuts said in a Wednesday interview. “That will be something unique.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney said last month he was pursuing even deeper ties with Europe after signing a defence-industrial pact in addition to the existing strategic partner agreement and a free-trade deal.
“This fall, we will begin discussions with the European Union — the world’s second-largest economy — to build a much stronger and deeper security and economic partnership,” Carney said on Aug. 22.
Tuts said what that looks like is still being worked out, but it won’t look exactly like arrangements the EU has with neighbours such as Switzerland, Norway and the United Kingdom.
She said the new partnership will be discussed by Carney and EU officials when he visits the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, next week. Tuts said Carney’s invitation to Strasbourg was a rare gesture for a non-European leader.
While media reports have suggested a deal could be reached between the EU and Canada at the meeting next week, Tuts said she expects only discussions on a possible new partnership and possibly some details from the speeches.
Brussels would then consult with member states on the deal, and Canada would do the same with the provinces, ahead of a possible announcement at late-October summit in Canada.
“It’s more than filling gaps,” Tuts said.
“The idea is to go further in the integration, on substance and on the way we are working together. So the first reflection will be on substance. What do we want to do together? Where do we want to co-operate more? And the second part will be how to do that, in what sort of format. This will be for later.”
Achim Hurrelmann, co-director of the Centre for European Studies at Carleton University, said it seems the new agreement is being put together in a hurry.
“I wouldn’t expect much detail at this stage, because my understanding is that they are really a little bit scrambling for ideas of what to include in this new package, of forming an even closer partnership,” he said.
“I would expect some comments on building a new stage of even closer relations between the EU and Canada. That seems to be a consensus, that the summit in October is supposed to produce that.”
He said that might include things like collaboration on a European stockpile of critical minerals, university student exchanges through the Erasmus program and a digital trade agreement.
Hurrelmann said this all might amount to a series of agreements instead of a major pact, or a grab bag of ideas assembled under the label of “co-operating on strategic capabilities.”
“There are lots of initiatives, but they don’t at this point really amount, from what I can see, to this systematically new step in the relationship,” he said. “I’m not really sure if the substance will actually justify the new label.”
He said deeper ties could hinge on challenges caused by Canada sorting out its trade access to the U.S. market and Europe seeing a rise in far-right movements that are skeptical of the EU.
Canada was the first non-European partner in an EU loan program for joint defence projects called Security Action for Europe, or SAFE.
But only one project has emerged from the program for Canada so far. The EU charges SAFE partners a fee based on expected economic spinoffs, and calculated a drastically lower fee for Canada than for the U.K. last December.
“As always in the Canada-EU relationship, it’s easier to come up with big pronouncements of new initiatives than to actually follow through on these announcements,” Hurrelmann said.
Next Wednesday in Strasbourg, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is set to give her annual speech on the state of the continental bloc outlining her priorities for the next 12 months, Tuts said.
She said Carney will deliver his own address the next morning in front of 720 members of the European Parliament.
Canada will host the recurring EU-Canada summit six weeks later, which should see Carney welcome von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa. The summit takes place Oct. 29 to 30 but its location has not been announced.
Tuts said the Canadian government has tasked multiple people with overseeing the “quite dense” collaboration it is pursuing with the bloc on issues ranging from critical minerals to disinformation.
“We are living in a very fascinating moment in the relationship. We are closer than ever — and we will be even closer,” she said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2026
Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press
