Ursula von der Leyen proposes that Canada become the first associate member of the EU

The President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen proposed on Wednesday that Canada, which wants to move closer to Europe, become the “first associated member” of the European Union, in a speech to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.

“We want to raise relations with Canada to the highest possible level (...) I would therefore like to work with you towards the possibility of Canada becoming the first associated member of the EU,” she declared to Mark Carney, invited to the European Parliament in Strasbourg for his annual back-to-school speech. When this proposal was announced, MEPs stood up to applaud Mark Carney for a long time.

The latter, the first head of foreign government to attend this “State of the Union speech”, is due to speak on Thursday before the Strasbourg Parliament. Canada, in the middle of a trade war with Donald Trump's United States, is looking for new partners. For its part, Europe, whose relations with Washington are just as stormy, is also seeking support for its strategy of rebalancing between the two superpowers, China and the United States.

“Reinventing our partnerships”

“We see the world with the same eyes: from AI to climate change, from the Arctic to geopolitics,” stressed Ursula von der Leyen, calling on Ottawa and Brussels to “build” a “common future”. Canada and the EU are already economic partners thanks to a trade agreement, which has allowed an increase of more than 75% in their trade “in less than a decade”, according to Ursula von der Leyen.

But, it is “urgent to reinvent our partnerships,” she added, calling for an associate member perspective for Canada. Mark Carney, for his part, spoke of a “unique alliance” on both sides of the Atlantic. Associate membership status is not legally defined by the EU treaties. But Germany recently proposed that Ukraine benefit from it. Berlin then suggested that kyiv could attend certain ministerial meetings or EU summits, without having the right to vote.