The fourth meeting of the EU- Canada Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) was held at senior officials level in Brussels on 9 March, a day after the European Commission President concluded her visit to Canada.

The JCC reviewed the state of the EU-Canada relations and adopted a Joint report, which gives an overview of EU – Canada cooperation and highlights key achievements, initiatives and high-level meetings, since 2020 when the latest Committee took place.

The JCC confirmed the usefulness of the Strategic Partnership Agreement in advancing EU-Canada political dialogue and cooperation across the board, underscoring the strengthening of the partnership during the particularly challenging global context over the past three years. It discussed issues of shared priority including the EU and Canada’s robust and closely coordinated response to Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine, as well as ways to respond to its global ramifications, particularly on energy and food security, supply chains, access to critical raw materials and cyber-related risks.

The JCC also discussed how to further enhance security and defence cooperation and welcomed Canada’s consistent contributions to EU Common Security and Defence Policy missions and operations, while also noting Canada’s continued progress in joining the PESCO project ‘Network of Logistics Hub in Europe and Support to Operations’ following the positive decision of the Council of 20 February 2023.

On human rights and democracy, the JCC reviewed joint actions undertaken to defend fundamental rights and freedoms, gender equality, the rule of law, and the rules-based international order, including by coordinating bilaterally and in multilateral fora.  The JCC noted the EU’s intention to support Canada’s partnership action plan against Arbitrary Detention, on a voluntary basis, by jointly conducting research on key aspects of arbitrary detention as recommended by the EU-Canada Joint Ministerial Committee in May 2022. It also welcomed the mechanism that Canada had put in place to allow for further participation in EU election observation missions through CANADEM and discussed the close collaboration in the framework of the G7 Rapid Response Mechanism (G7 RRM) to tackle foreign information manipulation and interference.

The JCC also discussed EU – Canada cooperation on global and sectoral issues such as the Strategic Partnership on Raw Materials, a key instrument established in June 2021, to further develop existing cooperation and ensure the security of supply chains for minerals and metals that are critical for the twin digital and green transitions. It also offered an opportunity to discuss how to continue to lead efforts to promote the global reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and to foster the transition to a net zero emissions economy by 2050. In this context, the JCC discussed enhanced cooperation on energy with the objective of pursuing a net zero energy transition and enhancing security of supply. Given the long-standing and successful cooperation in research and innovation, the JCC took note of the ongoing negotiations for Canada to join Horizon Europe, the world’s largest research and innovation funding programme, as an associated country.

The JCC concluded with recommendations to the Joint Ministerial Committee, notably to maintain close coordination and enhance cooperation on foreign policy, human rights and democracy, security and defence, the green transition, raw materials, energy security, the digital transformation, space as well as justice and home affairs.

The meeting in Brussels was co-chaired by Brian Glynn, Managing Director for the Americas of the European External Action Service, and Sandra McCardell, Assistant Deputy Minister for Europe, Arctic, Middle East and Maghreb of Global Affairs Canada with the participation of EU Member States and representatives from Canadian provinces and territories.