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Canada–Europe relations

Canada	Europe

Canada

Europe

Canada has many diplomatic, economic, and cultural ties to the peoples and states of theEuropean continent.

Prior the Second World War, this referred primarily to bilateral relations with particular countries. However, since 1945 Europe has become increasingly institutionalized, and theGovernment of Canada deals directly with the major European multilateral organizations.

Canada's relationship withEurope is a consequence of the historical connections generated bycolonialism and mass Europeanimmigration to Canada. Canada was first colonized byVikings on the shores ofBaffin Island, plus those ofNewfoundland and Labrador in theMiddle Ages. However, centuries later in theModern Age, it would be mainly colonized byFrance and, after 1763, it formally joined theBritish Empire after its conquest in theSeven Years' War. It also had colonial influence fromSpain inBritish Columbia, plus southernAlberta andSaskatchewan. Formal diplomatic ties were not possible between Canada and European countries when Canada was a collection of British colonies, but migration ties continued through the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Traditionally, from the beginnings of Canadian diplomacy in the 1870s to the 1930s, Canadian contacts with European countries were limited. Canada was not fully independent of the British Empire in matters of foreign affairs. Therefore, Canada could not send ambassadors to European capitals but rather relied on theCanadian High Commissioner in London or the Canadian Legate attached to the British Embassies in Paris, as well as Washington to make contacts with European diplomats.

Travel between Canada and Europe for political leaders was also limited. This began to change during and following the First World War, when Canada was a member of theEntente Powers in alliance with a variety of European states including France, Belgium, Italy, and Russia, and sent troops to France and Belgium. Formal expression of this new relationship emerged after 1919 when Prime MinisterRobert Borden attended theParis Peace Conference, and when Canada joined theLeague of Nations and sent representatives to its headquarters inGeneva.

Canadian engagement with the League of Nations was relatively weak however, as the government ofMackenzie King mostly pursued a policy ofisolationism, though King did begin to make overseas travel for prime ministers a more regular occurrence, including a visit to Adolf Hitler in Berlin in 1937.^[1]

With the onset of theSecond World War Canada became intimately involved in the politics of Europe, as a member ofthe Allies, as a sanctuary for European refugees including theDutch royal family, and with Canadian troops fighting in France, Belgium, Italy, and the Netherlands. Canada began raising the status of its missions in Europe fromlegations to embassies in 1944. Canada was a stronglyAtlanticist state, and following the war, the new links were institutionalized through the creation of theNorth Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) which bound Canada to defend any of the (Western) European members of the alliance if it was attacked by theSoviet Union. Relations with "Eastern Europe" (in the sense of theWarsaw Pact) were decidedly cooler.

Economically, Canada still dealt much more with theUnited Kingdom than the rest of the continent at end of the war, but this began to change quickly because of the post-war economic booms in France and West Germany combined with British relative decline. At the same time Canada's relations with the United States loomed ever larger, so that relations with UK were no longer so important as to be thought of as separate from European relations, as they had been before. This was confirmed by Canadian refusal to back Britain's position in theSuez Crisis of 1957, and Britain's entry into theEuropean Economic Community in 1973 over Canadian (and Australasian) objections. Canada and Britain still continue to have close ties, however, based on shared history and culture, and share the same head of state and are both members ofthe Commonwealth.

Canada's commitments to the rest of Europe included NATO-related forces stationed in Germany and Norway, and a series of economic agreements with theEEC starting in 1976.

Since the end of the Cold War, Canada has expanded ties with Eastern Europe, including being the first western country to recognize the independence of the Baltic States and Ukraine from the Soviet Union in 1991.

Canada is still a member of the NATO alliance committed to defending its fellow members from an attack anywhere in Europe, howeverCanadian Armed Forces were withdrawn fromNorway in 1989 and Germany in 1993 at the end of the Cold War.^[2][3]

Proposals for transatlantic economic and political ties, which Canadian hoped NATO would include in 1949, have not come to fruition. TheEuropean Union and theNorth American Free Trade Association instead represent two divergenttrade blocs. However, Canada has signed afree trade agreement with the smallerEuropean Free Trade Association in 2008.

Negotiations for theComprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between Canada and the European Union concluded in August 2014. The agreement has only been provisionally applied because only 17 EU member states have ratified the agreement as of January 2024.^[4][5] If applied, the agreement would abolish 98 per cent of customs duties on all goods between the EU and Canada.^[6]

After Russia's2014 invasion and annexation of Crimea, NATO members agreed at the2016 Warsaw summit to deploy four multi-national battalion battle groups to theBaltic states andPoland.^[7] Canada provided the core of the Battle Group Latvia throughOperation Reassurance. As of 2023, approximately 1,100 Canadian Armed Forces members have been deployed toCamp Ādaži with a plan to deploy aCanadian Army tank squadron equipped with 15Leopard 2 tanks and increasing the strength of the deployed force to 2,200 by 2026.^{[8][9][10][11]}

• Foreign relations of Canada
• Canada–NATO relations
• Canada–European Union relations
• Canada–European Free Trade Association Free Trade Agreement
• European Canadians
• Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement

• Canada–Europe relations
• Foreign relations of Europe
• Foreign relations of Canada by region

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