OTTAWA - The European Union says the arrival of the Trudeau Liberal government heralds a new era of transatlantic co-operation on energy and climate change.
Marie-Anne Coninsx, the EU ambassador to Canada, says the Oct. 19 election of Justin Trudeau has changed the playing field on those two issues.
The major change, she says, is that Canada now links climate change and energy policy, which allows for a high-level dialogue on a variety of related issues.
Coninsx says a team of EU ministers from various related portfolios will be in Ottawa in the first half of the year to meet their Canadian counterparts for talks on key issues.
The EU's view of Canada's new prime minister emerges as Trudeau continues his travels in the Swiss Alps at the World Economic Forum, where he has talked up Canada's innovation and brain power over the country's vast, but finite, natural resources.
Coninsx says Europe has identified renewable energy, innovation and research, as well as growth in imports of liquefied natural gas, as priorities it can pursue with Canada.
