This is a rather bold proposal coming from European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, in her her annual state of the European Union address in Strasbourg.
She has opened the door for Canada to become the first “associate member” of the EU, backing Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney’s pitch for a more “unique security and economic alliance” with Europe.
“Dear Mark, I said we must urgently reimagine our partnerships so I would like to work with you on opening the door for Canada to being the first associate member of the European Union. In short, we want to bring the relationship with Canada to the highest level possible. This is not a partnership against anyone else, but for our common strength. We share one ocean, one set of values, one way of seeing the world. And we will now build our shared future as well.”
Carney was of course in the audience for this, and has been coy about the whole situation in the run up to von der Leyen’s speech today.
Just yesterday, he even said that Canada is not seeking to be an official member of the EU. But with this latest news, it seems that being an “associate member” – whatever that might end up entailing – is very much on the table.
For some context, the EU does not have any framework for an “associate membership”. That means von der Leyen will have to require unanimous approval from the bloc’s 27 member states in order to push through this proposal.
And with that, there are still no details on what being an “associate member” would mean for Canada in this instance. However, it is likely that it could involve a trade or security pact at the very least.
There will likely be some pushback from some member states, worried about Canada being given preferential treatment beyond the existing trade and investment partnerships. However, the person most likely to be unhappy over this situation and voice out his immense displeasure will be US president Trump.
His trade war with both the EU and Canada is pretty much one of the major reasons pushing both sides together now. Trump called Canada “the worst country to deal with” and one can imagine that he might be readying up more tariffs in response to this special partnership.
This article was written by Justin Low at investinglive.com.