US embassy cable - 05OTTAWA1930

UNCLAS OTTAWA 001930 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL, EAIR, ASEC, EAID, ECON, EU, CA, EU 
SUBJECT: CANADA: THE CANADA-EU SUMMIT 
 
 
1.  (U) Robert Clark, Director of the EU Division at Foreign 
Affairs Canada (FAC), provided a debrief on the results of 
the June 19 Canada-EU summit, held in Niagara-on-the-Lake, a 
resort town in southern Ontario.  Clark characterized the 
one-day summit as extremely successful, with the GoC pleased 
that the EU leadership was fully engaged in the discussions, 
given that the summit came in the immediate wake of the UK's 
rejection of a compromise EU budget agreement and the 
referendum defeats of the proposed EU constitution in France 
and the Netherlands.  As Clark put it, the EU was at the 
conference table, not only in body, but in spirit.  He also 
related a remark made by European Commission President Jose 
Barroso at the conclusion of the summit, when Barroso said 
that recent events in Europe meant that the EU might have the 
flu, but that it didn't mean that it had cancer. 
 
2.  (SBU)  Clark cited the conclusion of negotiations on two 
security issues -- exchanging airline passenger records on a 
real-time basis as flights are en route the Atlantic, and 
establishing a framework to facilitate Canada's participation 
in future EU-led crisis management operations -- as the major 
accomplishments of the summit.  Both agreements require 
ratification before taking effect; Clark stated that these 
items were executive decisions which did not require 
legislative approval, and he anticipated that the Cabinet 
would approve them within the next couple of months.  Clark 
also mentioned favorably discussions on preventing over 
fishing in the North Atlantic, underscoring that the GoC has 
seen an improvement in the compliance of foreign fishing 
vessels (Spain and Portugal in particular) operating in 
international waters. 
 
3.  (SBU)  One surprise of the summit, according to Clark, 
was the amount of time that Prime Minister Paul Martin 
devoted to the discussion on combating pandemics, with Martin 
reviewing Canada's experience in confronting the SARS 
outbreak in 2003.  Canada and the EU agreed that it was 
critical to engage the USG on this issue, and to build an 
international coalition that would include China among the 
participating countries.  Martin suggested that this could be 
a topic for consideration at the UN millennium  5 summit in 
September. 
 
4.  (SBU) Clark also noted that the issue of Overseas 
Development Assistance (ODA) was raised during the press 
conference following the summit.  Luxembourg Prime Minister 
(and current EU Council President) Jean-Claude Juncker 
suggested that perhaps the OECD definition of what 
constitutes foreign aid should be revised to more broadly 
include security assistance, commenting that under current 
guidelines, much of Canada's assistance to Darfur is not 
counted as ODA.  (Note: A senior official at Finance Canada 
mused to us earlier this year in the context of US military 
participation in Tsunami relief that perhaps there should be 
an effort in the DAC to redefine humanitarian aid to include 
a military component.  End note.)  Clark said that the 
Canadian delegation found it somewhat surprising that Juncker 
would take such a position, given that several EU states had 
either already achieved the 0.7 percent standard, or had 
timelines to do so by 2015.  (Comment: In advance of next 
month's G-8 summit, the issue of Canada's current ODA, and 
Prime Minister Martin's refusal to set a timeline for 
achieving 0.7 percent, has received extensive press coverage. 
 In response, Finance Minister Ralph Goodale noted 
unfavorably that some EU countries were implementing taxes on 
airline tickets or backloading their commitments onto the 
last years of the pledge before 2015, and confirmed that 
Canada, despite a commitment to increase ODA by at least 8 
percent a year with a target of 0.7 percent of GDP,  would 
not take fiscally imprudent measures to increase its ODA. 
End comment.) 
 
5.  (SBU) The EU mission in Ottawa was pleasantly surprised 
by the press coverage of the summit, despite the fact that it 
took place on a Sunday in a remote location.  They attribute 
the interest to the contentious meeting in Brussels 
immediately prior to the Canada-EU summit and to the two "no" 
votes regarding the constitution.  They contend that the lack 
of accord in Brussels did not spill over into the Canada-EU 
relationship, but that much of the initiative was from the 
Canadian side.  They note that although no Canada-EU disputes 
were reported, they did not see eye-to-eye on some issues, 
such as ODA levels. 
 
6.  (SBU) According to Clark, the next Canada-EU summit is 
tentatively scheduled for November, and would likely be held 
in the UK, given that London is taking over the six-month EU 
presidency From Luxembourg. 
 
Visit Canada's Classified Web Site at 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/ottawa 
 
RODDY