Prime Minister Mark Carney said Ottawa and Brussels are aiming to sign a Canada–EU agreement within seven months for an “ever-closer” association short of full accession.
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Prime Minister Mark Carney says Canada’s push for an “associate” relationship with the European Union is not a “short-term” project, despite efforts by both sides to move toward a new partnership within seven months.
Carney said Friday that Ottawa and Brussels are working toward what he called the “deepest possible partnership short of accession,” a framework he described as making Canada “the European Union’s first associate member.” He said that, in the coming months, Canada and the European Commission will meet to “determine the full substance, scale and scope of this new form of membership.”
Carney’s comments followed a summit in Montreal on Thursday and Friday, where officials agreed to a joint statement promoting a “Canada-EU Alliance for the Future.” The statement commits the two sides to working to “define by the 2027 EU-Canada Summit the concept of an ever-closer association of Canada to the EU, short of full membership itself,” and it notes that the EU ultimately did not include the term “associate member” in the joint statement.
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, championed the idea of associate membership in Strasbourg, France, last month. On Friday, she said she believes in building a partnership with Canada that “comes closer to membership than anything we’ve done before.”
Despite the enthusiasm, Achim Hurrelmann, co-director of the Centre for European Studies at Carleton University, said negotiating such a status could be difficult, particularly in the short term. He said: “I’m not sure if a status with that name can be established for Canada any time soon.” Hurrelmann added that the momentum could help drive the idea forward, but that member-state involvement can slow progress: “once all of the member states get involved — we saw that in negotiating the summit declaration — then the entity is able to move only very slowly.”
Hurrelmann pointed to a key challenge as a lack of clarity around what “associate membership” would mean in practice within the EU. He said the wording used by Canadian officials this week was the “strongest embrace of associate membership” he has seen from Canada, adding: “So I think the member states definitely will insist on their right to be heard on that.”
Carney said he will meet with EU presidents periodically to track progress. He also said Canada’s federal cabinet will meet with European cabinets in Canada in March, and that he will attend European Council meetings in June with the aim of concluding negotiations. He noted that any resulting agreement would require EU member approval and would be put to a vote in the House of Commons as well.
Carney said he is not “married to the term ‘associate member,’” focusing instead on outcomes from closer economic and defence ties. In the joint statement signed Friday, Canada and the European Union called for more industrial collaboration and supply chain integration and referenced joint projects. The statement also calls for the creation of a new Canada–EU business council.
The Prime Minister’s Office said Canada and the European Union will take initial steps toward a new transatlantic data cable and study how to increase liquefied natural gas exports to the European market in the coming months.
As talks proceed, Hurrelmann noted political uncertainty in Europe, with general elections set for Spain on Nov. 29, French presidential elections scheduled for April, and Poland expected to hold parliamentary elections on Nov. 11 next year.
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