The finance ministers of the U.K., Ukraine and Switzerland are also joining to give updates on their economies and hold one-to-one meetings, despite the summit being consumed by disagreements over the EU's next seven-year budget.

Meanwhile, the head of the European Investment Bank, Nadia Calviño, will head to Ottawa on Sunday to lay the groundwork for Europe-Canada cooperation on critical raw materials.

Harris said: “It's a real vote of confidence in the European Union, quite frankly, that a country and an economy as big as Canada wants to cooperate.”

“Some countries are choosing to look inwards, that's their right. The European Union wants to continue to be outward-looking. It's a positive development, it's not a development against anybody,” he added.

Von der Leyen’s pitch to make Canada an associate member — a legal status that currently doesn’t exist — has ruffled feathers among EU capitals after she made the surprise announcement in a major speech on Wednesday. Carney has said he welcomes the plan's ambition, but stopped short of a full endorsement.

Harris was positive on the pitch, calling it “really exciting” and pointing to climate and cybersecurity as two issues where the EU and Canada could cooperate.