The EU and Canada reinforced their cooperation and reaffirmed shared interests to boost competitiveness, innovation and economic resilience at their first Digital Partnership Council in Montreal, Canada.
At the Council, which took place back-to-back with the G7 Industry, Digital and Technology Ministerial meeting, the EU and Canada both launched strategies to strengthen their competitiveness and digital sovereignty and reiterated the importance of supporting companies, especially small and medium-sized (SMEs), with smart regulations.
Co-chaired by EC executive vice-president Henna Virkkunen and Canada’s Minister for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation Evan Solomon, the Council welcomed the cooperation under the Partnership and set an ambitious agenda for the months to come. The EU and Canada agreed to explore opportunities to cooperate with like-minded partners on issues of common interest.
Supporting innovation and boosting AI adoption in strategic sectors
The EU and Canada committed to developing trustworthy artificial intelligence (AI) technologies that respect fundamental rights and facilitate trade, investment and economic growth. To enhance their cooperation on AI standards, regulation, skills development and adoption, the partners have signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Artificial Intelligence.
The partners will share best practices to accelerate AI adoption in strategic sectors such as healthcare, manufacturing, energy, culture, science and public services, and support SMEs. They committed to work together on large AI infrastructures and support industry and academia’s access to AI compute capacity. They will also explore scientific cooperation on fundamental AI research, and the development of advanced AI models for the public good, including in areas such as extreme weather monitoring and climate change.
In addition, the EU and Canada will set up a structured dialogue on data spaces, of particular relevance to the development of large AI models.
To leverage the cooperation on digital credentials and trust services, including on technical interoperability and solutions based on digital identity wallets, the EU and Canada signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Digital Credentials and Trust Services.
Both partners plan to establish a forum to facilitate joint testing of digital credential technologies, drive pilot projects, and share information. They will develop joint use cases and pilot projects towards interoperability of digital identity wallets and digital credentials and trust services.
Strengthening media independence
The digital transformation of the news media landscape has led to challenges such as increased reliance on a few online platforms and risks posed by AI to journalism. The EU and Canada recognise that access to independent, reliable and pluralistic media, including on online platforms, is essential for democracy.
They will explore closer collaboration on the strengthening of independent media by supporting local journalism for example. They will also explore cooperation on enhancing information integrity online, including on the challenges posed by generative AI and the risks stemming from foreign information manipulation and interference.
Deepening and broadening the cooperation
As trusted partners, the EU and Canada are committed to working together on secure international connectivity, for example in 5G and subsea cables, and have agreed to explore new cable routes to strengthen global network resilience, including in the Arctic region.
The EU and Canada will deepen the collaboration in priority topics such as quantum technologies, semiconductors, and high-performance computing.
They also reaffirmed their commitment to resilient semiconductor supply chains and secure and sovereign cloud infrastructure and data centres.
EU-Canada Digital Partnership Council Joint statement
