News Release

From the Prime Minister's Web Site (http://www.pm.gc.ca/)

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PRIME MINISTER STEPHEN HARPER ANNOUNCES JOINT INITIATIVES WITH EUROPEAN UNION LEADERS

June 4, 2007
BERLIN, GERMANY

Prime Minister Stephen Harper today announced a number of new initiatives between Canada and the European Union (EU) at the conclusion of the 2007 European Union-Canada Summit in Berlin.

The initiatives were announced in a joint Summit statement released by Prime Minister Harper, German Chancellor and current EU President Angela Merkel and European Commission President José Manuel Barroso. The EU's High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, Javier Solana, also participated in the discussions.

The Prime Minister used the Summit with European leaders to advance Canada's priorities and achieve concrete outcomes in the areas of peace and security, trade and investment, and climate change and energy. He also took the opportunity to discuss with these key Europeans Canada's approach to regional and global issues on the G8 Summit agenda later this week in Heiligendamm, chaired by Chancellor Merkel.

While in Berlin, the Prime Minister also gave an address to over 200 members of the business, scientific and policy-making elite of Germany on Canada's leadership in helping to achieve a global consensus on climate change action. Germany is the EU's most populous country and the world's third largest economy.

The 2007 EU-Canada Summit Statement is attached.

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2007 EU-Canada Summit Statement

Berlin, 4 June 2007

We, the leaders of the European Union and Canada, met today in Berlin to deepen our strategic partnership. Our bilateral relations are strong, as demonstrated by our many areas of close collaboration, both within our borders and beyond. Our partnership is anchored firmly by our shared history and values, our common objectives and our mutual resolve.

We are committed to the free and secure movement of people between the EU and Canada, and to the objective of visa exemption for all EU member states as soon as possible. To provide greater transparency and achieve concrete progress toward our shared goal of visa-free travel for all EU citizens to Canada, Canada will soon provide information on the criteria and process to achieve visa exemption, and we will extend EU-Canada cooperation in this area.

Today, we have agreed to advance our shared goals in three critical areas: peace and security; our economic partnership; and energy and climate security.

Peace and security

The EU and Canada promote an international order based on effective multilateralism, international law, democracy, the rule of law and human rights, and strengthened by broad and sustainable economic development. We cooperate to promote United Nations reform. We work together to enhance the UN's capacities in crisis management and peacebuilding and support the Peacebuilding Commission. We work together on the promotion and protection of human rights, both bilaterally and multilaterally. We support the International Criminal Court. We affirm our commitment to intensify cooperation on Arctic issues, including through the renewed Northern Dimension policy and International Polar Year.

The EU and Canada cooperate on global challenges, such as counter-terrorism and non-proliferation, and regional challenges such as the Balkans, and the Middle East Peace Process.

We have decided to deepen our ongoing cooperation in military and civilian crisis management based on the Agreement Establishing a Framework for the Participation of Canada in EU Crisis Management Operations. We will establish cooperation between the EU and Canada's Stabilisation and Reconstruction office (START) in crisis response. We will advance the good ongoing co-operation we have developed on election observation, such as participation by Canadian observers in recent EU Election Observation Missions in Congo and Aceh.

We agree to strengthen the sovereignty and independence of Lebanon and we urge the implementation of UNSCR 1701. We fully support the efforts to assist the Lebanese Government in reinforcing its border security especially to prevent the illegal flow of arms into Lebanon.

Owing in part to our combined efforts in Haiti, we now see improvements in the security situation and an opportunity for Haitian authorities with the support of the international community to strengthen governance, the rule of law and living conditions for the Haitian people.

The EU and Canada call for immediate steps to stop the fighting and human suffering in Sudan/ Darfur and to find a political solution to end the conflict. The EU and Canada expect Sudan to cooperate fully with the UN and the AU on the establishment of a hybrid UN-AU peacekeeping force. We will continue our support to AMIS. The EU joins Canada in making additional substantial contributions to fund the mission for the transition period leading up to the UN hybrid force. The EU and Canada will work with the International Criminal Court to bring those responsible for atrocities to justice.

A peaceful, democratic and more prosperous Afghanistan that respects human rights under the rule of law and lives in peace with its neighbours is a priority and a joint vision for the EU and Canada. Today we renew our commitment to assist the Afghan Government in implementing the goals and benchmarks of the Afghanistan Compact. Our comprehensive approach includes governance, development and security efforts. Our common goal is to strengthen the capacity of the democratically-elected Government of Afghanistan to extend the rule of law, which is vital for development. To these ends, we have decided today that:

Canada will participate in a new EU Police Mission (EUPOL) to Afghanistan to work towards a professional, effective and ethnically balanced Afghan police force. It will help to extend the rule of law by deploying police and justice-sector experts to provide training and mentoring to Afghan police officers nation-wide. Canada will contribute personnel to the EUPOL mission, and Canada's police contingent at the Canadian Provincial Reconstruction Team in Kandahar province will be part of the EUPOL mission.

The EU welcomes the new Canadian initiative to establish a police and justice sector In-Service Training Facility (ISTF) in Kandahar as an important contribution to strengthening law enforcement in southern Afghanistan. The EU will contribute expertise to the design and development of this facility and will add to the success of the ISTF by cooperating with Canada in the training and mentoring of Afghan police officers. An EU project on justice reform will complement the aims of the ISTF by working to professionalise Afghanistan's judiciary.

The EU and Canada will enhance cooperation on the ground to ensure that our initiatives, including efforts to foster security, good governance and development are complementary and mutually-reinforcing. These initiatives will continue to be guided overall by the Joint Coordination Monitoring Board, given its central mandate to provide high-level coordination and political guidance for the implementation of the Afghanistan Compact benchmarks.

Economic partnership

Economic relations between the EU and Canada are healthy, with dynamic and increasing trade and investment flows. We reaffirm our strong commitment to conclude promptly the WTO Doha Development Agenda (DDA). We also affirm our objective to reach an ambitious, balanced and comprehensive deal that creates new trade flows in agriculture, industrial goods and services among and between developed and developing countries.

Complementary to the multilateral process, and building on our negotiations toward a Canada-EU Trade and Investment Enhancement Agreement (TIEA), the EU and Canada are working on further advancing EU-Canada economic integration and facilitating trade and investment flows. In that light, we have today agreed upon several concrete steps to support the competitiveness of our economies and the prosperity of our citizens.

The EU and Canada agree to:

Cooperate on a study to examine and assess the costs and benefits of a closer economic partnership. This study will examine the existing barriers, especially non-tariff, to the flow of goods, services and capital, and estimate the potential benefits of removing such barriers. The study will also identify how such a partnership could complement ongoing efforts to enhance our bilateral cooperation in areas such as science and technology, energy and the environment. Leaders will review the results of this study at the 2008 Canada-EU Summit with a view to pursuing balanced and closer future EU-Canada economic integration.

Intensify work on regulatory co-operation, which makes a crucial contribution to the strengthening of trade and investment relations. To this end, the two sides reinforced their commitment to fully implement the existing Framework for Regulatory Cooperation and Transparency by endorsing the Regulatory Cooperation Roadmap of sectoral initiatives as set out in the Annex and identifying and implementing ambitious results-oriented cooperation initiatives. Further, Leaders call upon EU and Canadian regulatory authorities to enhance regulatory compatibility and convergence by considering each others' measures before adopting unique approaches. The EU and Canada commit to concluding a Regulatory Cooperation Agreement, addressed under the TIEA, as soon as possible.

Open negotiations toward a Canada-EU Comprehensive Air Services Agreement to improve links between our respective aviation markets by expanding our international air services opportunities. In order to support the growth potential of our markets and ensure safe and secure aviation operations for our citizens, we will expand our cooperation by moving forward expeditiously with necessary consultations and mandate approvals to launch negotiations by the fall of 2007 with a view to their early conclusion. In this way, we will affirm and advance our shared commitment to the development of a healthy and viable air transportation industry.

Welcome the agreement on a bilateral European Community-Canada Air Safety Agreement and confirm that it should be signed as soon as possible.

Climate change and energy

Both a sustainable environment and a sustainable economy are key to the well-being of our peoples and our planet. We are convinced that tackling climate change and ensuring clean, secure and affordable supplies of energy are central, interlinked global challenges. Addressing these issues requires urgent, sustained global action and an integrated policy approach, using a wide range of regionally, nationally or internationally defined policy tools and measures. We are determined to ensure access to affordable, clean and secure sources of energy to underpin sustainable global economic growth and to protect our environment. Tackling the challenge of energy security will also require unprecedented international cooperation in several areas, including increasing energy efficiency, market transparency, diversifying energy supplies – including the share of renewable energies – and protecting and maintaining the world's energy supply system.

The scientific assessment of climate change and its impacts through the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) makes a clear case for addressing climate change and warrants urgent and sustained cooperative action.

We are guided by the IPCC findings and are committed to taking strong and urgent global action, in order to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system. In order to achieve the necessary substantial reductions, the EU and Canada underline the need for reducing global greenhouse gas emissions by at least half by 2050. Canada is committed to a 60-70% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared to 2006; the EU has concluded that developed countries should collectively reduce their emissions by 60 to 80% by 2050 compared to 1990. To achieve these objectives, we are committed to work actively and constructively together and with other nations to launch negotiations toward a global and comprehensive post-2012 agreement at the UN Climate Change Conference in Indonesia in December. We will also work together and with other nations to deliver results in our global efforts to confront climate change through the upcoming G8 Summit in Heiligendamm and our numerous multilateral partnerships.

We recognize that effective efforts to reduce deforestation in developing countries could achieve a significant reduction of emissions into the atmosphere, conserve and protect biodiversity, foster sustainable land management and contribute to poverty alleviation. We will work together and with other nations to promote effective international cooperation to reduce emissions as a result of deforestation in developing countries.

On the critical issues of energy security and sustainable energy production, we are committed to promoting access to clean, secure and affordable sources of energy to underpin sustainable global economic growth and protect the environment in both developed and developing countries.

We note especially the importance of advancing energy efficiency, increasing the share of renewables, including biofuels, and advancing hydrogen/fuel cells and carbon dioxide capture and storage technologies in improving our energy security and reducing anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases.

Tackling the challenge of energy security requires enhanced international cooperation in several areas, including increasing energy efficiency, improving market transparency, diversifying energy supplies, and protecting and maintaining the world's energy supply.

We affirm our commitment to tackle the interlinked challenges of climate change, energy security, and sustainable development within our countries and through international cooperation. To these ends, we have agreed today to:

Establish a Canada-EU High-Level Dialogue on Energy. We already have active and fruitful contacts in particular in the International Energy Agency and in the G8, and agree that there is a need for regular bilateral contacts on energy issues. We have therefore agreed to establish a formal high level annual dialogue on energy issues, taking into account the strategic elements on climate change being developed in the existing High Level Dialogue on environment. Results will be reported to the next EU-Canada Summit.

Strengthen the Canada-EU High-Level Dialogue on Environment with a view to promoting effective and inclusive future cooperation on climate change, to meet initially in autumn 2007. Amongst other issues we will: consider more closely together such issues as options for a post-2012 international climate change framework, including potential guiding principles such as broad participation, reflection of national circumstances, addressing adaptation and advancing markets and technology development and commercialization; and, pursue cooperation on our respective domestic climate change programmes and measures, and market mechanisms to address climate change (including both domestic and international emissions trading schemes).

Pursue cooperation to promote clean, secure and affordable energy technologies (including carbon dioxide capture and storage, near-zero emissions coal, ocean energy and second-generation biofuels), and best practices on energy efficiency in buildings, vehicles and appliances.

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The Prime Minister's Office - Communications
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