Plans for Canada to join the European Union as an “associate member” have been dismissed as meaningless by diplomats in Brussels.
Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, told Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister, she wanted to open the door to the unprecedented, and as yet undefined, associate membership in a flagship speech in Strasbourg.
But the offer seemed to wrong-foot Mr Carney, who attended Ms Von der Leyen’s state of the union address.
