Prime Minister Mark Carney listed space alongside artificial intelligence, quantum computing and critical minerals among the strengths Canada brings to a proposed deeper partnership with the European Union (EU), in an address to the European Parliament during a two-day visit to Strasbourg, France, that concluded Thursday.
“Canada brings abundant energy, critical minerals, world-class capabilities in space, artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum, and one of the world’s strongest banking systems,” reads the Prime Minister’s Office’s news release. It builds on the Canada-EU partnership in June 2025.
“Canada will work with speed and ambition to make this possible, to create greater certainty, security, and prosperity for our peoples for generations to come,” Prime Minister Carney said in the release.
We don’t know what a deeper space relationship with the EU would look like, nor what the proposed “associate member” means. We do, however, know quite a lot about Canada’s current relationship with regard to the space sector and Europe.
Canada is a Cooperating State through its Cooperating Agreement with the European Space Agency (ESA). This is a longstanding cooperative agreement dating back to 1979 and was most recently renewed in 2019, extending through 2030. Last year, Canada significantly ramped up its contribution to ESA when the Canadian government committed $664.6 million.
It should, however, be noted that the EU and ESA are distinct organizations with partially overlapping, but non-identical, member states and have very different mandates. The EU is a political and economic union, and ESA is an intergovernmental organization dedicated to the peaceful exploration and use of space. The EU provides upwards of 24% of ESA’s total budget.
We also know that Canada joined the EU’s Security Action for Europe (SAFE) defence-procurement program in February 2026, the first non-European country admitted, after negotiating a Canadian-content exemption well above the norm for outside suppliers — which opens European defence contracts to Canadian space companies such as MDA Space, Telesat and NorthStar Earth & Space. Two months later, Canada and the European Space Agency signed a security agreement letting Canadian firms bid on sensitive contracts that had been off-limits under Canada’s decades-old status as ESA’s only non-European member.
Ottawa’s own Defence Industrial Strategy names space among 10 “sovereign capabilities” that give domestic companies priority in military procurement, and lists the EU among the trusted allies Canada wants to co-develop space systems with, SpaceQ reported the same month as the SAFE signing.
There is one note of caution to keep in mind. In 2016, Canada and the EU signed the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). It included a section related to space that industry objected to, saying it was one-sided in favour of EU space companies. In 2022, as permitted under CETA, Canada opted out of the space section.
So while Canada and the EU are moving closer, including with defence procurement and more opportunities through ESA that Canada is funding in specific programs, this new, yet-to-be-defined “associate member” does not necessarily mean new commercial markets will be open for Canada. EU states will want to make sure that they protect their business and supply chains as they have in the past.
CETA was flawed in relation to the space sector; perhaps this new “associate member” might fix what was wrong.