OTTAWA – The European Union is working more closely with Canada on creating, stockpiling and researching vaccines as the United States pulls back, says a senior official from Brussels.

“Our production, research and development capabilities, and how we communicate about our existing (vaccine) stock, are extremely sensitive matters,” European Crisis Management Commissioner Hadja Lahbib said in a French-language interview Monday in Ottawa.

“Canada is the only country outside the European Union with which we do this.”

Lahbib said her visit was scheduled before plans were made for the EU-Canada summit that starts Thursday in Montreal. She said the health sector is one of many fields where the bloc wants to work closely with Canada.

“This shows the level of closeness we have today, and of trust. And so, we are now going to begin this work in the health sector, boosting research, in life sciences … to be stronger together,” she said.

The goal, she said, is to “truly secure our supply chain (and) not depend on actors who are becoming less and less loyal, or let’s say less and less predictable, in order to be able to confront all the dangers we face today.”