The European Union and Canada have reinforced their digital cooperation, placing artificial intelligence, digital identity wallets, and independent media at the center of a renewed transatlantic partnership. The commitments were announced during the first EU-Canada Digital Partnership Council, held in Montreal alongside the G7 Industry, Digital and Technology Ministerial meeting .
Co-chaired by European Commission Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy Henna Virkkunen and Canada’s Minister for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation Evan Solomon, the Council marked a key milestone in the Digital Partnership launched in 2023. Both sides reaffirmed shared goals of strengthening competitiveness, innovation, and economic resilience, while emphasizing the importance of smart regulation to support businesses, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises .
A central outcome of the meeting was the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on Artificial Intelligence. Under the agreement, the EU and Canada committed to closer cooperation on AI standards, regulation, skills development, and adoption across strategic sectors including healthcare, manufacturing, energy, culture, science, and public services. The partners also agreed to support access to large-scale AI infrastructure and compute capacity, and to explore joint research on advanced AI models for public-interest uses such as climate monitoring and extreme weather forecasting .
The Council also advanced cooperation on digital identity through a separate Memorandum of Understanding on Digital Credentials and Trust Services. This initiative aims to improve interoperability between EU and Canadian digital identity wallets, supported by joint testing forums, pilot projects, and shared technical standards .
Media independence was another priority, with both partners acknowledging the risks posed by platform concentration and generative AI to journalism. The EU and Canada agreed to explore closer collaboration to support local journalism and strengthen information integrity online, including responses to foreign information manipulation .
Beyond AI and media, the partnership will expand into areas such as secure connectivity, subsea cables, quantum technologies, semiconductors, and high-performance computing, reinforcing the EU and Canada’s shared vision for a human-centric digital economy.
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