Transcript (en)

President von der Leyen spoke of moving beyond CETA to an alliance for the future, opening the door to Canada to become the European Union's first associate member. Canada welcomes this ambition. And I will tell you, polling shows that an overwhelming majority of Canadians support much closer ties with Europe. An alliance for the future is a unique, positive approach that we will define together, building on our common strengths and based on our shared values. But let me take this opportunity to say plainly what Canada proposes. Canada and Europe should secure our strategic autonomy through deep cooperation in the full range of strategic capabilities, including critical minerals, defence industrial capacity, AI and compute, energy security, space and payments. We should move towards seamless digital trade and non-agricultural goods and a wide range of services. We should deepen our people-to-people ties, allowing our youth to work, study, and live where they want on either side of the Atlantic.