Canada Holds Backdoor Talks on EU Associate Member Status
A trade war with Washington and the rhetoric of the American president about the neighboring country joining as another state have triggered Ottawa's geopolitical pivot. The Canadian government has initiated unprecedented negotiations with Brussels, attempting to break free from total economic dependence on the US through close integration with the European market.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. Photo: Sean Kilpatrick / The Canadian Press
As reported by The Wall Street Journal, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney initiated backdoor consultations with European leaders regarding granting his country "associate member" status in the European Union.
Brussels has never before offered such a format for transatlantic partners, but the large-scale economic conflict in North America is forcing both sides to seek unconventional solutions.
Relations between the two countries, the US and Canada, have significantly deteriorated since Donald Trump's return to the White House in early 2025: the US imposed harsh tariffs, and Trump himself repeatedly publicly suggested that Canada become the "51st state." Carney categorically responded that his country is not for sale and demanded that the American leadership "stop making memes" instead of engaging in normal diplomacy.
Instead of yielding to Washington's economic pressure, which absorbs more than 70 percent of Canadian exports, the Canadian government has set a course for the de-Americanization of key industries.
Reuters writes about discussions of an unprecedented level of integration: from free, visa-free movement of workers to the merger of strategic supply chains in energy, artificial intelligence, and critical mineral extraction.
Canada plans to build joint data centers with Europe, lay underwater internet cables, and create new satellite networks to break free from dependence on American technology giants.
To achieve this goal, Carney uses his British mobile number for direct informal correspondence with Emmanuel Macron, Giorgia Meloni, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, convincing them that
"Canada is the most European of non-European countries."
A demonstration of this new direction will be Mark Carney's upcoming visit to Strasbourg, where he is to present his vision for a European-Canadian alliance before the European Parliament. Immediately after, on September 20, the Canadian Prime Minister will meet with the President of France on the archipelago of Saint Pierre and Miquelon — an overseas French territory off the coast of Canada itself.
The political subtext of this meeting is evident. Earlier, Donald Trump published a map of North America on his social network, provocatively overlaying the American flag not only on Canada, Mexico, and Greenland but also on French possessions.
The joint visit of the European and Canadian leaders is intended to demonstrate to Washington the inviolability of sovereign borders and the allies' readiness to defend their economic and political independence.
However, Ottawa's ambitious plans inevitably encounter European bureaucratic reality. The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the EU and Canada, signed ten years ago, has still not been ratified by ten European states due to internal disputes over agricultural product quotas.
Nevertheless, chances of success remain: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz previously proposed the concept of "associate membership" for Ukraine, which creates the necessary legal and ideological precedent for realizing Canada's European dream, bypassing the classic, overly lengthy EU accession procedure.