Carney pushes the idea of making Canada an “associate member” of the EU

Canada’s Prime Minister, Mark Carney, wants to strengthen relations with the European Union and is considering whether his country could become an “associate member” of the bloc, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.

The EU, which in the past has not been flexible regarding accession rules, is open to the idea of granting Canada an as-yet-to-be-created associate member status, the newspaper reports, citing anonymous officials from both the EU and Canada.

Canada’s embassy in Brussels and spokespeople for the European Commission did not respond to respective requests for comments.

Canada’s strategic shift

The escalation of Canada’s trade war with the United States has added urgency to its strategic shift towards other trading partners. Relations between Ottawa and Washington have deteriorated considerably since President Donald Trump returned to the White House last year due to disagreements over trade and other issues. The trade dispute has resulted in tariffs affecting tens of billions of dollars in cross-border trade.

Canada and the EU are discussing ways to allow Canadian goods, services, and workers involved in strategic supply chains — such as energy, artificial intelligence, defense, and critical minerals — to move freely, effectively shifting the EU border, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Canada and the EU are also talking about laying submarine cables, jointly building data centers, cloud storage, and new satellite networks, as well as infrastructure to transport Canadian energy to the EU, according to the newspaper.

Carney has already held talks with several EU leaders, including Macron

Carney has held regular talks with several EU leaders, notably French President Emmanuel Macron, about the possibility of allowing Canadians to live and work in the EU without a visa, according to the WSJ, citing two anonymous officials familiar with the matter. Macron’s press office did not respond to a request for comment.

Macron’s office separately confirmed that he will meet with Carney on September 20 in the French territory of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, an archipelago off the Atlantic coast of Canada.

The meeting marks the first official visit by a Canadian prime minister to the archipelago and “symbolizes the strength of the relationship that unites our two countries,” the Élysée Palace said.

However, any project aimed at strengthening ties between Canada and the EU will likely face difficulties, judging by past efforts to launch a more modest trade agreement, which has encountered fierce opposition within Europe.

More than a decade after the agreement was reached and nine years since its provisional entry into force, several EU countries have yet to ratify it.

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