The European Union and Canada held their second Joint Cooperation Committee
Brussels, 28 June 2018
The European Union and Canada held the second meeting of the Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) today in Brussels.
The Joint Cooperation Committee adopted the first report on the state of EU-Canada relations. This report takes stock of all the major events held, agreements signed and initiatives launched since the provisional entry into force of the Strategic Partnership Agreement in April 2017. It gives an account of the breadth and depth of EU-Canada cooperation and demonstrates the extent to which people on both sides of the Atlantic benefit from stronger bilateral relations.
The meeting reviewed the state of the EU-Canada relationship in key areas, including economic and sustainable development, climate change, ocean partnership, energy, research, innovation, higher education and youth cooperation, development policy cooperation, and security and defence. The JCC reaffirmed that the EU-Canada Strategic Partnership Agreement enables close cooperation across all of these fields, among others, and to pursue common initiatives.
There was an opportunity to reaffirm the EU and Canada's strong commitment to multilateralism and their support for the international rules-based order, including the United Nations and the World Trade Organisation, as well as to exchange views on topical foreign policy issues. They also discussed cooperation in the fight against terrorism, Passenger Name Record data and migration and asylum cooperation.
In the area of human rights, the EU and Canada explored concrete ways to advance their cooperation in working for gender equality, agreed to relaunch their cooperation in election observation, and coordinated their efforts on International Criminal Court universality.
The JCC also reviewed preparations for the Women's Foreign Ministers meeting, which the High Representative/Vice-President, Federica Mogherini and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chrystia Freeland will co-chair on 21-22 September 2018 in Canada. The meeting will bring together the world's women Foreign Ministers in order to harness their expertise and enable them to address together the significant global challenges of today.
The Joint Cooperation Committee also serves to prepare the EU-Canada Joint Ministerial Committee, co-chaired by the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the European Commission, Federica Mogherini and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada, Chrystia Freeland, and to be next held in Canada in the autumn.
The Joint Cooperation Committee was co-chaired by Edita Hrdá, Managing Director for the Americas in the European External Action Service and byCanadian Assistant Deputy Minister for Europe, Arctic, Middle East and Maghreb, Stefanie Beck.
For more information:
Report on the state of EU-Canada relations
Factsheet on EU-Canada relations
Website of the Delegation of the European Union to Canada