Mr. Speaker, the European Union is made up of 25 countries with a population of half a billion people. Today it is the largest global, economic entity and represents 20% of world trade.
Canada has very important trade and investment links at stake in Europe. Our close ties are historical and millions of Canadians have origins and family there, which is why Canada worked so hard to establish a privileged relationship with the European Union involving twice yearly summits, once in Europe and once in Canada.
How can the Prime Minister pull out of the Canada-EU summit? How can he justify this decision when he will already be in Europe for a meeting of NATO anyway?