Canada seeks a new bond with Europe after negotiations with the US failed

After the failure of trade negotiations with the USA, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is accelerating the strategic turn towards Europe to bring Ottawa's relations with the EU to a higher level: not full membership, but a sort of 'associate member' to reconfigure the economic ties of the Western alliance. For months, the Wall Street Journal wrote, Carney had held private conversations with nearly every European leader - from France to Italy, Germany, Scandinavia and others - about how to more deeply integrate Canada and its 41 million inhabitants into the club of 27 EU countries.

A new bond to compensate for the divorce from the USA

The one with Europe would be a sort of shotgun wedding to compensate for the pain of the divorce from America. In fact, President Donald Trump's threat to make Canada the 51st US state is pushing Ottawa towards Europe. Carney has instructed his special envoy to Europe to evaluate the most ambitious possibilities, but has ruled out full membership of the EU or its common market, according to people familiar with the matter. Details are still being worked out by technical working groups for what the former Bank of England governor described to his aides as the reorganization of an economy and society dominated by the United States for half a century. Carney even suggested to European leaders that Canada take on a new status: that of 'associate member of the European Union'. According to officials on both sides, the EU - known for being inflexible in applying membership rules - has been open to the idea. The result of months of negotiations is that European and Canadian officials are considering how Canada can informally integrate into Europe's $21 trillion single market in strategic sectors such as energy, AI, critical minerals needed for batteries or semiconductors, and defense.

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New submarine cables and gas pipelines are also being discussed

In concrete terms, Canadian goods, services and workers in these sectors could one day circulate without obstacles between Europe and Canada, blurring the economic borders of the EU. The sides are discussing laying submarine cables to connect the two shores and jointly building data centers, cloud storage systems and new satellite networks outside the control of US tech giants. Carney is pushing to build pipelines that would allow Canada to redirect gas from the US to European allies, still busy replacing Russian energy supplies. In his vision, icebreakers would open an Arctic route to carry Canadian fertilizer eastward with the Northwest Passage that has drawn explorers to the polar seas for centuries. The real unknown remains: Trump's reaction to such a plan.

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