In 1998, the Commission launched an ambitious initiative to establish a network of EU Centres in universities providing information and education about the European Union. The objectives of the EU Centres are to increase awareness in Canada about the political, economic and cultural importance of the EU-Canada relationship, to promote greater understanding in Canada of the European Union and its policies, and to disseminate information and publicise EU views on issues of interest within regional communities.

The Commission now supports 5 such European Union Centres of Excellence in universities across Canada: Université de Montréal–McGill, Carleton University, Dalhousie University, York University and the University of Toronto-Victoria, in recognition of the high quality, variety and depth of their EU studies activities, which promote the study of the EU and EU-Canada relations through teaching programmes, scholarly research and outreach activities in their local and regional communities. The activities and main programmes of these Centres are listed in the 2010 EU Centres brochure [10 MB] . The Canadian Network coordinator is the University of Carleton in Ottawa.

The first networking meeting tooko place in Brussels in April 2008 for all 20 EU Centres existing then. The second meeting took place in April 2010 in Madrid with 26 Centres and the next one will be in Brussels in October 2012 for the current 32 Centres.