Remarks by High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini at the joint press conference following the EU-Canada Joint Ministerial Committee

Montréal, 6 November 2018

Check against delivery!

Merci Chrystia [Freeland, Ministre des affaires étrangères du Canada]. C'est un plaisir pour moi et ma délégation d'être à nouveau à Montréal - cela devient une habitude très positive – pour cette deuxième réunion [ministérielle UE-Canada], après celle que nous avons eu à Bruxelles l'année passée, dans le cadre de notre nouvelle architecture de partenariat entre l'Union européenne et le Canada.

As you rightly mentioned, the European Union and Canada are closer than ever. This is because we share the same interests, we share the same values, we recognise that the best way of serving our interests is protecting and promoting our values, which are the universal ones.

We base our cooperation on a cooperative approach, both within our societies, with our partners, and within the multilateral institutions.

Chrystia [Freeland] has done a remarkable job in mentioning the whole range of sectors where, not only we work together, but where we have decided to strengthen our cooperation with very practical arrangements we have made during this almost one full day of work.

We have decided to increase our cooperation and our work in all these sectors, and this brings benefits to our people. It does not only bring benefits to our people but also to the rest of the world as Canada and the European Union together are, I would say, in a certain way the centre of the world alliance to preserve and promote a certain way of looking at the world, which is based on cooperation, on multilateralism, on free and fair trade, on human rights and on democracy.

Our work, be it in UN fora, be it on peacekeeping, on security, on the many different crises we have around the world, but also on economic and trade cooperation, on science and technology, on oceans, on climate change - looking towards the COP24 [24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change], which we will host in the European Union, in Poland, at the end of this month. These are all sectors where the cooperation between Canada and the European Union is crucial.

I would not take more of your time in repeating what Chrystia [Freeland] has already described very well; I would just like to say that this partnership for the European Union is crucial and we are looking forward to continue implementing both our Strategic Partnership Agreement that we have now in place since one year and a half, and also our Economic and Trade Agreement that is already bringing good results to our businesses on both sides of the Atlantic.

So, work will continue in a very determined, a very pragmatic and concrete way, keeping as a compass our values and our common position on how we would like to see the world developing in the coming years.

Thank you Chrystia. Merci beaucoup pour ton accueil et pour ton hospitalité mais également celle du Premier Ministre [Justin Trudeau] et des Canadiens, qui sont des personnes toujours très agréables avec lesquelles travailler et passer du temps. Nous sommes – je pense – plus que des partenaires, nous sommes vraiment des amis, et c'est quelque chose de très important dans le monde d'aujourd'hui.