Not yet decided. Wilkinson says President von der Leyen mentioned associate membership and Prime Minister Carney speaks of an alliance for the future, but 'we're not there.' Canada is focused on concrete results in specific sectors, and how to describe the relationship will be addressed around the summit in October.

Since Mr. Carney became Prime Minister, Canada has sought to enhance its resiliency and diversify trading and security relationships. The Prime Minister has said no grouping of countries is more important for that diversification than the European Union and its 27 member states, and both sides want a deeper, stronger relationship.

A free trade agreement that Wilkinson calls enormously successful has been in place for 10 years. Over the past year Canada has also joined SAFE, a defence procurement program where it is treated as though it were a European country, and Horizons, a research program, on the same basis.

Wilkinson says Canada is not looking to be an EU member because members give up portions of their sovereignty. The aim is to get as close as possible while strengthening both sides' sovereignty, for example in energy, resources, the digital economy, artificial intelligence and supercomputing, without giving up significant chunks of sovereignty.

It depends on the sector. Wilkinson says Canada is focusing on areas where it can make a lot of progress in the short term, and there are not many sectors where regulations have to change. In two or three years there may be other sectors, but progress is possible without many regulatory changes.

Wilkinson expects significant benefits to be visible in October: opportunities for economic growth and inbound investment into Canada, strengthened democratic resilience through work with the European Union, and potentially enhanced mobility for people. He declined to detail specific initiatives because they still have to be agreed and announced.

Yes. Wilkinson says there were conversations beforehand, so it was not a surprise. Canada had talked to the EU about an Alliance for the Future, which von der Leyen used, and the EU had raised associate membership many times; both sides decided it was important to first do the work.

Wilkinson calls it a historic day: the Prime Minister was the first non-EU government leader ever to sit through the State of the Union, and was due to speak in the European Parliament the next day, which he describes as a great honour and an important step toward a closer relationship.