Photo: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney with President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, in Strasbourg, France.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney addressed the 720-member European Parliament in Strasbourg, France this morning.
You can watch his full speech here.
CETA and SAFE
Prime Minister Carney stated: “We should build on each other’s strengths deliberately, systematically and rapidly. We’ve already begun and I thank this parliament. We’ve already begun with CETA [the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement], one of the world’s most successful trade agreements.”
“And I thank President von der Leyen and President Costa for our strategic partnership agreement struck last June. We’re developing that and deepening it.”
The prime minister further noted: “We’ve also begun to take advantage of Canada’s role as the first non-European member of SAFE [the €150 billion Security Action for Europe low-interest fund to purchase military equipment].”
Associate member of the EU
Carney continued: “Yesterday, 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.”
He then stated: “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.”
Critical minerals
Carney noted: “Yesterday, President von der Leyen announced, and I quote, a new European corporation on critical raw materials to obtain and stockpile the material needed for electric cars, for chips and batteries, clean tech and defence.”
He then highlighted: “I’ll observe that Canada has deposits of over 34 critical minerals and we are among the top producers of the 10 most essential for the energy transition. Our alliance can help fill Europe’s need for reliable supply, Canada’s desire for advanced processing capabilities and our common objective to complete value chains in the transition and our defence.”
LNG exports
Carney also emphasized: “Canada can contribute LNG and hydrogen at large scale to support Europe’s energy security, including by developing and leveraging new port infrastructure in our high north and on our east coast.”
Solidarity and international law
Carney concluded: “A Canada-EU alliance would create a beacon for other democracies. An alliance not defined by what we oppose but about what we are for. Freedom, solidarity, prosperity, sustainability. …An alliance principled enough that our strength reinforces international law rather than seeks to replace it.”
Analysis
Over the coming days, Peace Brigades International-Canada will be analyzing the implications of the Prime Minister’s speech to discern how to strengthen the longstanding PBI presence at the European Parliament in Brussels to advance the holistic protective accompaniment of human rights defenders.
We are also attuned to the implications of major projects related to critical minerals and LNG pipelines and export terminals on the lands and waters of sovereign Indigenous territories within Canada as well as the criminalization that Indigenous land and environmental defenders can experience when they uphold their inherent rights and their right to free, prior and informed consent.
The full speech by the Canadian prime minister to the European Parliament in Strasbourg can be seen here.
Further reading
–PBI-Canada seeks to strengthen the accompaniment of human rights defenders with the European Parliament office in Ottawa (PBI-Canada, September 15, 2026)
–As Canada bolsters economic ties with Europe, PBI calls on EU-backed investment to prevent human rights violations (PBI-Canada, September 10, 2026)
–Peace Brigades International calls on European Council to “oppose increase in the EU defence budget” (PBI-Canada, July 2, 2026)
–PBI-Colombia accompanies the Nydia Erika Bautista Foundation at meetings in Brussels with Members of the European Parliament (PBI-Canada, June 30, 2026).
Photo: Ottawa-based Peace Brigades International-Canada coordinator Brent Patterson with a Canadian delegation on CETA outside the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France and Brussels, Belgium.
