Brussels, 14 June (EFE). European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Council President Charles Michel, accompanied by High Representative for Foreign Policy Josep Borrell, will meet on Monday with the Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates. Canada, Justin Trudeau, on his first face-to-face summit since July 2019.
The leaders are expected to reaffirm their joint commitment to the strategic partnership between the European Union and Canada, the European Commission and the Council said today in separate statements.
The meeting, which will start at 7:00 pm local time (5:00 pm GMT) and at which a joint declaration will be adopted, will be organized in four thematic areas: epidemic control and economic recovery; Climate change; trade, technology and innovation; and foreign and security policy.
Thus, the four will discuss the response to the coronavirus pandemic, in particular ensuring global access to vaccines, cooperation for sustainable recovery and efforts to strengthen the World Health Organization (WHO), among others, by enhancing pandemic preparedness, the executive community identified in a statement.
Leaders of the two blocs will also discuss cooperation on climate action with a view to the UN COP26 Climate Conference, the COP15 Conference on Biodiversity and the UN Ocean Conference.
Trade, technology and innovation will also be on the agenda, with a particular focus on harnessing all the benefits of the Global Trade and Economic Agreement (CETA) between the EU and Canada, reform of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and cooperation in digital transformation, research, space and critical raw materials.
The agenda for the meeting, which will begin at the end of the NATO summit also taking place today in Brussels and which Trudeau is attending, also includes “key issues” in foreign policy, according to the European Commission.
Due to the delayed match, which is expected to run into late night, the final press conference will take place early tomorrow Tuesday and will feature Von der Leyen, Michel and Trudeau.
The Council of the European Union said in a note that nearly four years after the signing of the Global Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) and the Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA), this summit aims to give a new impetus to bilateral cooperation between the EU and Canada.
The relationship with Canada is one of the oldest that the European Union has of any industrialized country, dating back to 1959, and they cooperate closely in the Group of Seven and the Group of Twenty.
For decades, it has become a key partnership for Brussels in the face of global challenges.
Signed at the EU-Canada summit in October 2016 and provisionally in place since September 2017, CETA reduces tariffs and facilitates trade in goods and services.
Tariffs have been eliminated on 98% of the products the EU trades with Canada, and over the next few years, another 1% of tariff lines will be phased out.
Bilateral trade between the 27 EU countries and Canada increased by 27% in the case of goods and 39% in the case of services, compared to the situation before CETA, according to official data. EFE
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