Ursula von der Leyen has raised the prospect of Canada becoming the 27-nation European Union’s first ‘associate member’, opening discussion of a partnership category that does not exist in the bloc’s treaties.
The European Commission president made the proposal during her annual keynote speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday. Mark Carney, Canada’s prime minister, attended the annual ‘State of the European Union’ address, becoming the first foreign head of government to do so.
Carney said earlier this week that Canada was seeking a ‘unique alliance’ with the EU, while ruling out membership. He is scheduled to give his own address to the European Parliament on Thursday, and an EU-Canada summit is due to take place in Montreal next month.
Von der Leyen’s suggestion points towards closer political, economic and institutional ties between Canada and the EU. Yet the proposal leaves central questions unanswered. EU treaties do not provide for an ‘associate member’ category, and no specific rights, obligations or institutional arrangements for Canada have been set out.
It is also unclear whether EU member states would support the idea, how it could be created under the existing treaty framework, or how closely it would follow an earlier model discussed for Ukraine.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz first advanced the ‘associate member’ idea this year in relation to Ukraine. Under the plan proposed for Ukraine, the country would have been able to attend EU summits and appoint a representative to the European Commission.
Canada’s prospective arrangement could therefore require institutional innovation by the EU. The available details do not establish whether Canada would be offered comparable access, or whether a separate model would be developed for its relationship with the bloc.
Canada and the EU already have a substantial economic relationship. Their free-trade agreement, known as the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, or CETA, abolished almost all tariffs. The agreement has been credited with increasing trade in goods and services by more than 80 percent since 2016.
Cooperation has also expanded into defence. Canada became the first non-EU country to join a flagship defence loan programme this year.
Ottawa’s interest in deeper links comes as Canada looks for economic alternatives to dependence on the United States, amid trade tensions and tariff threats. The brief does not establish whether those concerns are driving the timing of von der Leyen’s proposal.
For the EU, the idea would mark an unprecedented expansion of its partnership structures. For Canada, it offers the prospect of a closer relationship while preserving the position Carney has set out: a ‘unique alliance’ rather than membership.
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