Substance Before Labels

The EU-Canada relationship is too important to be bogged down by status. Since European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed an associate membership for Canada (a term that does not exist in the EU’s treaties), too much political capital has been expended on what to call our blossoming ties.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has been eager to stress that substance is far more critical. As EU and Canadian leadership meet in Montreal this week, cooperation in artificial intelligence will be the litmus test of whether positive vibes can translate into concrete, measurable actions.

The foundation is already strong. In her State of the Union speech, President von der Leyen named Canada first among the partners she wants for testing advanced AI models and early warning. The following day, at the same podium in Strasbourg, Prime Minister Carney proposed joint safety protocols. Both leaders have signed the Finnish-Norwegian call for control of the most advanced AI systems.

Companies are already moving. Canada’s Cohere and Germany’s Aleph Alpha have agreed to combine, subject to regulatory approval. Alongside France’s Mistral, the combined company is one of the most serious efforts to build AI that European and Canadian institutions can determine. With headquarters in Toronto and Berlin, the company will feel directly the benefits of lowering barriers between the two sides and building more common standards.

A few tangible outcomes of this week’s summit could include:

1. Clarifying when Canadian researchers and companies will have access to European supercomputers, with Canada set to join the EU's supercomputing initiative;
2. Writing Canada into the Cloud and AI Development Act (CADA), the EU’s proposed law to expand cloud and AI computing capacity, as an associated country so that Canadian firms can bid for cloud and AI infrastructure contracts on European terms;
3. Setting a clear timetable for moving from exploratory talks to formal negotiations on recognising compliance checks for AI products carried out in Canada against EU AI Act rules, and signing off the digital trade agreement, which covers data flows and is close to completion;
4. Strengthening cooperation between the EU’s AI Office, which oversees the AI Act, and Canada’s AI Safety Institute, with regular exchanges on testing advanced AI models as Canada agreed with the UK this month, and a shared format for reporting serious AI incidents;
5. Making it easier for AI researchers and engineers to move and collaborate. Canada wants to join the successor to Horizon Europe, the EU’s research funding programme, and Erasmus+, and officials are discussing easier movement in specialised fields. AI research is an obvious candidate, building on Canada and Germany's joint backing of LawZero, the safety research organisation founded by Yoshua Bengio, a member of Arq’s Advisory Council.

Carney’s call to build a middle powers coalition has made some in Brussels bristle at the idea of the bloc being classified a middle power. Von der Leyen’s initiative for Canada to be granted associate membership has been met with unease in several European capitals. Perhaps, rather than fixating on labels, we should just get on with building the partnerships that will help both Europe and Canada take more control over their own future.