Toward a Canada-Europe Alliance: Building a Global Bridge for AI and Digital Infrastructure

CIGI identifies the authors as Daniel Araya, a CIGI senior fellow[1], and Javier Ruiz-Soler, a senior technology and policy advisor at the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario.[1]The authors argue that Canada's relationship with the United States remains foundational, but the assumptions underlying it "have become profoundly unsettled."[1] They write that with the Canada-EU Summit as a backdrop, Canada and Europe have "a rare opportunity to build a long-term partnership."[1]They suggest that instead of letting tech giants in the United States and China dominate digital markets, Canada and Europe could integrate their digital infrastructure.[1] They name AI compute, sovereign cloud capacity, cybersecurity, quantum technologies and intelligent energy systems[1] as key industries.The piece states that such an alliance could go considerably further than CETA, the two sides' existing trade agreement[1]. CIGI notes that the opinions are the authors' own and do not necessarily reflect CIGI's views.[1]Earlier this month, The Canadian Press reported that a draft document showed Ottawa and Brussels aim to let Canadian companies bid on cloud and AI infrastructure contracts typically reserved for European companies.[2] According to the same report, the document also launches plans for Canada to join Europe's Galileo satellite navigation system.[2]The Canadian Press also reported that European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen proposed that Canada become the first associate member of the European Union.[2]