00:01At a bilateral summit in Montreal, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada and the European Union will aim to
00:10conclude negotiations on a new form of closer partnership by June next year.
00:16Carney has described it as an associate membership, a status that currently does not exist in EU treaties.
00:24The idea is to bring Canada and the EU closer on policy, programmes and governance, although the details still need
00:32to be worked out.
00:33Germany has strongly opposed the term associate member, and the summit's final declaration instead referred to an even closer association.
00:43The European Commission and Canadian government will hold further talks in the spring.
00:48Carney is then expected to attend an EU leaders' summit in June, when he hopes the negotiations can be concluded.
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