EU offers to make Canada an ‘associate member’ as strains grow with US
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen invited Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, seated in the front row in Strasbourg, to make Canada the EU's first ‘associate member,’ a status not currently recognized under EU law. The move comes as both Canada and Europe navigate tariffs and disorienting policy shifts from Washington.
Under the proposed arrangement, Canada would participate in EU institutions without voting rights and would not be bound by EU laws, though all 27 member states would need to agree, and Carney faces resistance at home from the conservative opposition. Von der Leyen framed the pitch around shared views on AI, climate and defense, plus reduced reliance on the U.S. and China.
The rest of her speech leaned dark, blaming Russia for a drone found near a Ukrainian cargo plane at a German airport and calling for a new European Security Council. She also proposed banning social media for children under 13 and restricting it for those older, while insisting Big Tech's power is not as unstoppable as it seems.
The full dispatch is available from the source below.