Opening statement by President von der Leyen at the EU-Canada summit

Cher Mark,

C'est un plaisir d'être ici à Montréal. Je suis ravie de connaître cette ville qui est ouverte sur l'Atlantique, cet océan qui nous lie. Merci pour l'hospitalité que nous rencontrons ici à Montréal.

Indeed, it is not so important where a country is on the map. Important are the values that a country defends and where the country stands in international relations. And therefore, we are very happy to be at the EU-Canada Summit. We know that we want Canada as close as possible to the European Union. We know that Canada cannot be a full-fledged member of the European Union, but to have a relationship as close as possible, this is our goal. There are many topics bilaterally that we will discuss this morning.

And of course, we also are creating a common space together with other trusted partners to look at the challenges of today, from critical raw materials to resilient supply chains, and from artificial intelligence to space, a lot to discuss this morning.

Thank you very much for having us.