European Union

On Thursday, Prime Minister Mark Carney stood before the European Parliament and said that he welcomed the “ambition” to bring Canada in as an “associate member.” He framed it as a sovereignty-reinforcing move, but seeing how many strings and risks come with EU membership — and how little he’s told the public about his plan — it sounds like a slim prospect.

Mark Carney received a rapturous reception in the European parliament when he gave his speech on Thursday welcoming a proposal for Canada to become the EU’s first-ever associate member.

Politicians queued to shake his hand and take selfies. One described the speech as a historic moment. “Europe has extended a hand, and Canada has taken it,” said the German Green MEP Terry Reintke, who borrowed a Canadian ice hockey shirt for the occasion.

Two years ago this month, former European Central Bank president Mario Draghi warned that the continent faced a “slow agony” of decline without radical reforms aimed at boosting investment and innovation, reducing regulations and increasing its energy security.

What happened next was typical of the bloated bureaucratic behemoth that the European Union has become. Much talk and a few symbolic gestures followed Mr. Draghi’s report. But it was soon back to business as usual in Brussels.

As chatter builds over Canada becoming the European Union’s (EU) first “associate member,” many questions are being raised about what this would mean for Canadian jobs, immigration, sovereignty and identity.

While full EU membership isn’t available for non-European nations like Canada, creating this unique “associate status” would forge unprecedented ties between Ottawa and Europe.

STRASBOURG, France—Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is attempting the most dramatic reorientation of his country’s economy and international alliances since Ottawa entered a free-trade agreement with the U.S. almost 40 years ago.

On Thursday, he used an address to the European Parliament to insist that his efforts weren’t aimed at creating a third bloc “to become a great-power rival—only with better manners.”

It was smiles, applause and handshakes all around on Wednesday in Strasbourg as Mark Carney sat in on EU President Ursula von der Leyen’s “state of the union” address, in which she floated the idea of Canada becoming the EU’s first “associate member,” whatever that means. But let’s not get carried away by all the well-wishing and good fellowship. The EU is a bloc that sensible countries like Iceland and Norway keep refusing to join. They already have the market access Carney wants and live right next door to the regulators he is courting, and yet they have repeatedly rejected closer integration.

In August, Icelanders voted 52.8 per cent against restarting accession talks that were abandoned more than a decade ago. Turnout was high at 82.5 per cent and the question was not membership but simply whether to reopen negotiations. And still the voters said no.

A word from VDH

Ursula von der Leyen’s proposal to make Canada the EU’s first-ever “associate member” risks stoking political tensions with EU candidate countries that have been waiting for progress towards full membership for years.

On Thursday morning, Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister, is set to take the podium in the European Parliament following von der Leyen’s pitch.

His predecessor, Justin Trudeau, did so twice already, in 2017 and 2022. Yet this time, the scene is different.

Carney of the EU makes speech!

The alliance between Canada and Europe is not defined by what we oppose. It is about what we are for: freedom, solidarity, prosperity, sustainability. An alliance strong enough so that no one can dictate our choices.

Europe and Canada are each strong. Europe and Canada are even… pic.twitter.com/RW85Z0EauJ

— Mark Carney (@MarkJCarney) September 17, 2026

BBC feed of Carney’s speech

Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, began her sixth state of the Union address in Strasbourg by invoking the spirit of Charles Dickens. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” she quoted from the start of A Tale of Two Cities, adding: “If I look at Europe today, I would say the state of our union is the strongest it has ever been. The state of our union can feel as precarious as it has ever been.”

It is a novel title, but not a new idea.

And it’s not one that has been universally appreciated.

Associate membership in the European Union, as was proposed Wednesday by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, would be another Canadian first.

Brussels was hit with a furious backlash today after announcing unprecedented plans for Canada to become an ‘associate member’ of the bloc – without asking EU capitals to sign off on the proposal.

EU diplomats told the Mail they were kept in the dark and first learnt of the proposal when Ursula von der Leyen, the EU Commission boss, unveiled it during a keynote speech.

During the top Eurocrat’s annual State of the Union speech to the European Parliament, she repeatedly love-bombed Canadian premier Mark Carney – who was in the chamber – saying Brussels wanted ‘to bring the relationship with Canada to the highest level possible.’

The European Union’s invitation Wednesday for Canada to become an “associate member” of the bloc shows just how intent these traditional United States allies are on pursuing a more stable future by binding closer together.

“We must urgently reimagine our partnerships,” Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, a beaming Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada sitting just to her side. But there are no guarantees they will get there.

The standing ovations and applause inside the European Parliament gave the impression that a deal between the EU and Canada was as good as done.

But Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, chose her words carefully.

The EU is willing to work with Mark Carney, Canada’s prime minister, to “find ways” to “open the door” to associate membership, she said in Strasbourg.