EU leaders to visit Canada as Ottawa eyes access to bloc’s science grants – National | 24CA News
The high heads of the European Union are anticipated to go to Canada this yr, as officers focus on the potential of Ottawa becoming a member of a significant research-funding pact.
“We are expecting the summit still to take place this year,” the EU’s ambassador to Canada, Melita Gabric, mentioned Friday.
Brussels and Ottawa maintain leaders’ summits each two years as a part of an settlement signed in 2017 alongside a significant commerce deal. These summit have to this point concerned the Canadian prime minister and the highest two heads of the bloc of 27 nations.
Gabric mentioned detailed planning for the go to has but to begin, however she expects either side will hammer out particulars on an settlement that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen signed with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in March.
That settlement referred to as for extra collaboration on all the pieces from inexperienced automobiles to preventing disinformation. A significant focus was the round economic system, akin to recycling battery elements to assist get nearer to a net-zero economic system.
The summit would possible contain a go to by each von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel to Canada. The Canadian Press has requested Global Affairs Canada in regards to the timing of the summit.
In a roundtable with Ottawa journalists, the European Commissioner for Budget and Administration, Johannes Hahn, mentioned the summit will assist either side take inventory of their assist for Ukraine. It may additionally additional talks to have Canada probably be a part of a greater than $100-billion scientific analysis program referred to as Horizon Europe.
The program has seen nations like New Zealand and Israel join analysis tasks partially funded by the EU, involving themes just like the digital trade, well being care and local weather innovation.
Ottawa and Brussels began negotiations on Canada becoming a member of the scheme final November, with the preliminary objective of signing an settlement this previous spring that will be in place this calendar yr.
Meanwhile, Hahn, whose job is equal to that of Canada’s president of the Treasury Board, mentioned Europe desires to collaborate extra with Canada on regulatory, fiscal and political issues.
He additionally argued {that a} greater push for multilateral engagement may also help each areas interact with others akin to Africa on issues from commerce and infrastructure funding to local weather change.
“If we are not working and living in a world which is based on agreements and contracts which are expected, we might face difficulties in the future,” Hahn mentioned.
Hahn was visiting Canada this week to drum up funding within the European Union’s program for a inexperienced restoration from the COVID-19 pandemic, and to push for extra nations to make use of the euro forex in worldwide transactions.
He mentioned Friday that each are buoyed by the union’s robust credit standing, which trumps these of a lot of its personal member nations.
Hahn helps oversee Next Generation EU, an financial restoration package deal just like Washington’s Inflation Reduction Act. The European funding disproportionately helps poorer nations, however Hahn argues that it’s going to additionally profit richer states like Germany and the Netherlands.
“Those who have much more firepower understand that it’s in their own interest, that you have a well-functioning single market,” he mentioned, including that the cash is supposed to assist Europe’s transition away from fossil fuels
A report final month by the Climate Solutions Lab at Brown University in Rhode Island discovered that the continent’s funding in wind power has peaked since an preliminary increase after Russia escalated its invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.
The researchers consider regulatory challenges and excessive rates of interest might be hindering the inexperienced shift.
Gabric and Hahn each mentioned that Europe seems to be to Canada for hydrogen within the medium-term future, however every mentioned that it’s not possible to determine liquefied pure gasoline exports from Canada, since it can take years to determine export capability on Canada’s East Coast.
“Natural gas is not so much relevant for us because the facilities are on the other side of your country,” Hahn mentioned, including that hydrogen is “extremely interesting” to Europeans.
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