The president of the European Commission has backed proposals for Canada to become the EU’s first “associate member”. Ursula von der Leyen told the European Parliament on Wednesday she wanted to work on “opening the door” for Canada, which would involve closer ties on various key sectors. The country currently faces tense relations with the US, compounded by an intensifying dispute over trade. Insisting it would not be a “partnership against anyone else”, Von der Leyen did not mention Donald Trump by name.
Nevertheless the US president threatened to cut trade with the European Union in response to the proposal. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney last week spoke of seeking a “unique alliance” with the EU. Carney was in attendance at the annual key note speech in Strasbourg, and is due to address the parliament on Thursday. Trade talks between Canada and the US collapsed last month, sparking a series of new tariff measures.
Trump’s repeated talk of making Canada a “51st state” has also helped to fuel the feud between the North American neighbours. Carney’s new love-in with EU has everything to do with Trump Von der Leyen told the EU’s State of the Union address that the bloc and Canada “see the world with the same eyes”, including on topics ranging from AI, to climate change and geopolitics. “And we have stood together: on Ukraine, on defence, on raw materials and on supply chains. But above all…
Europe and Canada believe in democracy.” She added: “Partnerships are a strategic choice for Europe. But they also respond to the fracture in the international rules-based system”. She did not give specific details on how any Canadian membership would work, but listed manufacturing, technology, artificial intelligence (AI), defence, energy, critical minerals and economic security as key areas for cooperation. When asked about the plan, Trump called it “laughable”.
“If they do that, if I think it’s at all a hostile act, I will put very serious tariffs or stop trading with Europe, on many things.” He added: “If it’s a good intention, that’s fine. If it’s a bad intention, we’ll put very heavy tariffs on Europe, which is a possibility.” Both von der Leyen and other European leaders have found a reliable ally in Carney as they deal with similar problems. In particular, they have faced Trump’s aggressive use of tariffs and his threat to annex Greenland which is a sovereign territory of EU member Denmark. But “associate membership” of the EU does not currently exist and the process, if agreed, could take years.
Earlier this year, Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz suggested – to a mixed reaction – that Ukraine could be granted this new status. Some countries in the western Balkans including Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia are already on the long road towards full EU membership. In Eastern Europe, Georgia and Moldova are also applying. Ten of the bloc’s 27 members are yet to ratify a free-trade agreement struck with Ottawa nearly a decade ago, and some capitals would prefer to build on existing defence and trade agreements rather than create a new form of membership for Canada.
Setting out the EU’s political and policy priorities for the year ahead, von der Leyen also proposed the formation of a European Security Council, which would include the UK and Ukraine, amid an ongoing threat to the continent from Russia. “For a long time, we have discussed a leaders’ format focused on the security of our continent, with partners like Canada, Norway, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and others involved,” she said in the wide-ranging address. “This is even more urgent now, given the nature and scale of the risks at play. This is why we will set out our ideas to make a European Security Council a reality.” Calls for such a body have been growing since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
It was initially a French-German conception but more countries have shown support, particularly as Trump has questioned the Nato military alliance. Other nations worry such a council could unhelpfully rival Nato. Von der Leyen said the EU was “strengthening our work with Nato” and that expanded defence spending would be “fully aligned” with the alliance. But at the core of such a security council would be the ability to trigger an emergency meeting if one member felt under threat, similar to Nato’s Article 4.
The EU chief said it would be a “mechanism to flank” Article 4, a term that could be interpreted as complementing Nato functions or – if taken in a military context – bypassing them. Alongside global threats, von der Leyen also said many European families were worried about the cost of living, and the “dizzying speed of change” of technology and its impacts on jobs and society. Other proposals included inviting the world’s largest AI labs for talks on how to support industry efforts to pace the frontier, as well as slashing bureaucracy for businesses in the EU. Plans to curb social media use among children, including banning platforms for under 13s, were also put forward.
Under the proposal, children aged 13 to 15 would only be able to set up social media accounts which are supervised by parents. A new emergency tool to help countries better deal with mass migration movements following the deadly influx of migrants to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in July would also be outlined. The pledge chimes with the message of European politicians on the right and hard right who have gained support in recent years for proposing a tougher approach. Some of them called the mass attempt to enter the EU through Ceuta an “invasion” and argued asylum rules should be suspended to deal with such a crisis.
Von der Leyen said the new emergency tool would “only be triggered under a strictly defined set of criteria” and for a specific period of time, and that fundamental rights would be protected. Human rights groups worry such a move would see vulnerable people, including women and children, turned back and denied the protection afforded to them under international law. Trump’s grand plan to reshape the world order leaves Europe with a difficult choice to make Carney gambles on the world’s biggest investors betting on Canada
