European Investment Bank chief heads to Ottawa amid warming EU-Canada ties
European Investment Bank President Nadia Calviño is heading to Ottawa on Sunday to lay the groundwork for Europe-Canada cooperation on critical raw materials, an official from her office said.
Calviño will be meeting with government officials including Canada’s minister for energy and natural resources, Tim Hodgson, in Ottawa.
The aim of her visit is for the European Investment Bank, the long-term lending arm of the European Union, to establish a presence in Canada and begin operations “as soon as the administrative paperwork is done, with a focus on [critical raw materials],” the official said. They were granted anonymity to speak about the internal strategy.
Coming after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday proposed admitting Canada as an associate member of the EU, Calviño’s trip is significant given that the EIB typically only operates in developing countries or members of the European Union or European Economic Area.
Ahead of this year’s G7 summit, Canada extended a behind-the-scenes offer to alliance members for “priority access” to its critical minerals stockpile, according to a letter seen by POLITICO from Hodgson.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney named boosting critical raw materials as one of the areas in which he wants to boost collaboration between Ottawa and Brussels in a speech to the European Parliament on Thursday.
“Canada and Europe should secure our strategic autonomy through deep cooperation in the full range of strategic capabilities, including critical minerals, defense industrial capacity, AI and computers, energy security, space and payments,” he said.
Carney told an investment summit in Toronto on Tuesday that EU and Canadian leaders would get down to serious business at an end-October summit that he will host in Montreal.
“The real deepening and discussions will be launched with our summit,” Carney said in Toronto. “And then go for it from there.”
Mike Blanchfield contributed reporting from Ottawa.
