Proposed EU-Canada ‘partnership’ could expand visa schemes for young Irish people

Schemes allowing young Irish people to travel to Canada on working visas could be expanded as part of a proposed Trump-proof “alliance” deepening co-operation with the European Union, Canada’s prime minister Mark Carney has suggested. In a closely watched address to the European Parliament, Carney laid out his vision to build much closer ties between the European bloc and Canada across a range of areas from energy supply to arms production, artificial intelligence and the Erasmus programme. His speech comes a day after European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said the door was open to Canada becoming an “associate member” of the EU – a special status that does not, at present, exist.Speaking on Thursday, Carney said Canada and the EU should “deepen our people-to-people ties, allowing our youth to work, study, and live where they want on either side of the Atlantic”. READ MOREHe said Canada could join the popular Erasmus+ scheme, which allows college students to spend a year studying in another university abroad. At the moment, Irish people aged 18 to 35 can apply for a two-year visa to work or travel in Canada as part of a youth mobility scheme, International Experience Canada (IEC).The scheme is open to more than 30 countries, mainly in Europe, and reciprocal arrangements are in place to offer work visas to young Canadians who want to head in the other direction. The scheme became particularly popular with Irish people looking to emigrate following the economic crash and recession. Demand has dropped from a high point where Irish applicants regularly secured 10,000 working holiday visas a year between 2015 and 2023, to less than 4,000 last year. Negotiations between Brussels and Ottawa about the scope of a closer EU-Canada relationship, dubbed a new 'alliance' by Carney, will step up over the coming weeks. Photograph: Jean-Christophe Verhaegen/AFP via Getty Images “The last two years are probably the exception rather than the rule,” said Ruairí Spillane, an Irish man who runs a Canadian recruitment agency and an immigration information site called Moving2Canada.Spillane said any moves to expand the existing two-year work scheme, or open new visa routes for EU citizens, would be good news. Post-Brexit demand for Canadian work visas from UK citizens had steadily increased, leapfrogging the number of Irish applicants, he said. Spillane said he could see a scenario where the Canadian government introduced specific visa schemes for skilled workers in the coming years as well, to help recruit additional labour for certain industries, such as the mining, pharmaceutical and defence sectors.Negotiations between Brussels and Ottawa about the scope of a closer EU-Canada relationship, dubbed a new “alliance” by Carney, will step up over the coming weeks. Commission president Ursula von der Leyen is scheduled to travel to Montreal for a summit with Carney in late October, where EU officials hope to be in a position to announce details of new agreements and joint declarations between the two sides, building on the Ceta free trade deal. Barry Andrews, Fianna Fáil MEP for Dublin, said Brussels should focus on significantly expanding visa opportunities for work and travel between the EU and Canada in the upcoming negotiations. “Thousands of Irish already travel to work in Canada on temporary visas, so this EU associate membership will help their legal status in future,” he said.