EU-Canada Strategic Partnership: Ups and downs

Australian and New Zealand Journal of European Studies, vol. 11

Abstract

Signed in 1976, the EU-Canada relationship was the first bilateral agreement that the EU signed with an industrialised third country. Modest strengthening of the ties was achieved with the 2004 EU-Canada Partnership Agenda. A fully-fledged free trade agreement was in the works at this time, but suspended in 2006. The EU-Canada strategic partnership agreement (SPA) and the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) did not materialise until more than a decade later, in 2016. This paper focuses in particular on the strategic partnership dimension. It explores why an SPA was possible in 2016, but not before. To answer this question, the paper looks at four time periods. In so doing it explores the origins of the EU-Canada agreement, how the EU-Canada relationship changed over time, and examines how a more profound strategic partnership came about when it did. In its analysis it considers institutional, domestic and geopolitical factors. It briefly speculates about the possible future of this partnership.

Authors 1

1. Amy Verdun corresponding Aachen

   Leiden University · University of Canterbury · Technische Universität Darmstadt · University of Victoria

   Affiliation as printed

   Leiden University , The Netherlands and University of Victoria , BC , Canada

   Leiden University, The Netherlands and

   University of Victoria, BC, Canada

   Europa Institute of Leiden University, Gordon S

   Technical University Darmstadt,

   University of Canterbury, Christchurch