European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has proposed establishing a special form of associate membership for Canada within the European Union, which would take bilateral relations to a level as close as possible to full membership, but without Canada actually joining the EU.
According to the European bureau of Report, she made this statement at a press conference following the EU-Canada summit in Montreal.
“We want to take our relationship to the highest possible level,” von der Leyen said.
According to her, the idea is to establish an association without accession to the Union, as current EU treaties do not allow non-European states to become members.
“We can replace the concept of accession with a shared ambition and vision. We can build a close partnership that will be closer to membership than anything we have done so far,” said the President of the European Commission.
She outlined three main objectives for such cooperation: expanding opportunities for citizens on both sides, increasing prosperity on both sides of the Atlantic, and strengthening shared security. The partnership is expected to be built around three pillars: political engagement, participation in EU programmes, and mechanisms for managing cooperation.
Von der Leyen emphasised that the current geopolitical context requires closer coordination between the EU and Canada, noting that a country’s geographical location is less important today than its willingness to act jointly and share common values.
Earlier, von der Leyen’s proposal had sparked disagreement within the EU: Germany, France, Italy and Greece opposed the inclusion of the concept of associate membership in the summit’s joint declaration. As a result, this wording was removed from the final document and replaced with a commitment to develop an “ever closer association” between the EU and Canada.
