Canada and the EU have launched the Alliance for the Future, which includes plans to connect their instant payment systems.
The leaders announced more than 20 measures covering trade, financial services, research, defence, space, and critical minerals, and launched negotiations on several others. Over the coming months, the two sides will negotiate connecting their instant payment systems so that people in Canada can send money to individuals and businesses in the EU.
Payments and financial services
The payments measure sits within a group of initiatives focused on affordability. Alongside it, Canada and the EU will set up a Joint Working Group to explore further opening their markets to each other’s banks, insurers, and fintech companies. Both items remain at the negotiation stage, and the announcement does not set out a timeline, a technical design, or the institutions that would carry out the connection.
The two sides have also concluded negotiations on a Canada-EU Competition Agreement, which will allow authorities in Canada and the EU to act against anti-competitive practices by companies operating in both markets.
The initiatives are framed within a wider sovereignty agenda. According to the announcement, secure access to payment systems now sits alongside critical minerals, semiconductors, energy, vaccines, space-based communications, and AI as a requirement for sovereignty. This positions payment infrastructure as a strategic matter for both governments rather than a purely commercial one.
Digital trade agreement
Canada and the EU have also concluded negotiations on a Canada-EU Digital Trade Agreement, described by Canadian officials as the country’s first agreement dedicated entirely to digital trade. The agreement updates digital trade rules and aims to simplify cross-border transactions for Canadian businesses selling goods and services online in Europe.
According to the Hon. Maninder Sidhu, Minister of International Trade, the agreement gives businesses more certainty when using electronic signatures for e-contracts, selling software and digital products, and transferring data across borders for commercial purposes. Each side retains the ability to regulate in the public interest.
For merchants and platforms active in both markets, the package combines updated rules for online trade with a prospective change to how funds move between Canada and the EU.
Wider partnership and next steps
Beyond financial services, Canada has joined the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking, giving Canadian researchers and businesses access to the JUPITER supercomputer. The two sides will also cooperate on the IRIS² secure satellite connectivity system and the Galileo navigation programme. Canada has signed a treaty framework allowing the European Investment Bank to invest in Canadian critical minerals projects, and both parties will study a new transatlantic data cable intended to reduce reliance on a single provider.
The alliance is designed to include other like-minded nations through what the announcement calls a variable geometry. In parallel, Canada and the EU are working towards Canada becoming the EU’s first Associate Member, a form of partnership short of accession. The substance, scale, and scope of this membership will be determined over the coming months.
