EU offers to make Canada ‘associate member’ as US ties weaken for both

By JEANNA SMIALEK and MATINA STEVIS-GRIDNEFF

The European Union has invited Canada to work toward becoming the bloc’s first “associate member,” a title meant to underscore Canada’s growing closeness to the 27-nation union as both face deteriorating relationships with the United States.

President Donald Trump has waged a relentless trade war with Canada, challenging the nation’s economy. The United States has pulled back support for NATO and Ukraine, leaving the EU scrambling to shore up its defenses. That has left both looking for new partners as the alliances established after World War II shift.

“We must urgently reimagine our partnerships,” said Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the EU’s executive arm, on Wednesday during a speech in Strasbourg, France. Mark Carney, the prime minister of Canada, was seated directly to von der Leyen’s left as she made her address.

“I would like to work with you on opening the door for Canada to be the first associate member of the European Union,” von der Leyen told him.

Though details remain scant and the linkup is not a done deal, the announcement Wednesday was met with a standing ovation from lawmakers, and Carney and von der Leyen shook hands warmly as she made the announcement.

Von der Leyen said the proposal was “not a partnership against anyone else, but for our common strength.” But it is clear that Europe and Canada see themselves caught between a competitive China and an at-times-hostile Trump administration.

“China, Russia and the U.S. have turned their backs on international law,” Barry Andrews, a member of the European Parliament from Ireland, said in a statement after von der Leyen’s speech. “We need new allies.”

Carney gave a headline-grabbing speech at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, this year during which he argued that the world order that emerged from the Cold War was facing a “rupture, not a transition,” and that “middle powers must act together because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu.”

Wednesday’s announcement was a vivid demonstration of that strategy.

Von der Leyen did not lay out in detail what associate membership to the EU might entail. But European diplomats and officials in recent days have made it clear that Canada and the EU, which will meet for a summit at the end of October, are working toward closer cooperation on technology regulation, trade and the supply of critical minerals.

They are also working to team up on security and defense. Von der Leyen highlighted that point in her remarks, noting that Europe had faced a recent series of drone incursions and other provocations, many of them attributed to Russia.

“Hybrid threats facing Europe are less and less hybrid, and less and less threats,” she said Wednesday.

Von der Leyen called for a European equivalent to a NATO provision that allows for the convening of defense-related meetings when a nation is threated, known as Article 4. The EU already has a little-known collective defense guarantee, but von der Leyen pitched “Europe’s own Article 4” and said that when it was “triggered by one member state, all member states would convene.”

She also called for a new leaders’ group, the European Security Council, that would include non-EU partners in Europe such as Britain, Norway and Ukraine, and also Canada.

The push to bring Canada closer is likely to encounter roadblocks. EU member states have warned offering too many benefits to a would-be associate would diminish the value of full membership, for instance.

As Carney navigates a historic low in his country’s relationship with the United States, the destination for three-quarters of Canadian exports, he has been focused on bringing his country closer to the bloc.

Since trade talks between Canada and the United States collapsed last month, the two countries have been locked in an intensified trade war. Trump has also repeatedly called for Canada to become the 51st state, prompting a wave of patriotism among Canadians.

By contrast, polls suggest that 4 out of 5 Canadians want Carney to bring their country closer to the EU and that more than half would like Canada to join the bloc as a member.

Canada and the EU already have a free-trade agreement, and though the deal has not been approved by 10 of the 27 EU member states, about 90% of trade between the EU and Canada is tariff-free.

Carney often calls Canada “the most European non-European country.” EU leaders have spent years joking that it could join the bloc if only it were not on a far-flung landmass.

“You’re very welcome in this house, and I hope you’re already feeling comfortable amongst the member states sitting here,” Terry Reintke, a German politician who leads the Greens group in the European Parliament, said to Carney