EU offers Canada first associate membership path as Trump tariffs bite

Strasbourg,UPDATED: Sep 16, 2026 15:20 IST

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday proposed opening a path for Canada to become the European Union's first associate member, in a major signal of closer ties as US President Donald Trump's tariffs push Ottawa towards Europe. She made the offer during her annual State of the European Union address, with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in attendance.

Carney received a standing ovation from European lawmakers and is due to address the European Parliament on Thursday. The move comes as Canada seeks to reduce its heavy dependence on the United States, which takes about 70 per cent of Canadian exports, and as Carney has called for a "unique alliance" with the EU.

Addressing Carney directly, von der Leyen said, "I would like to work with you on opening the door for Canada being the first associate member of the EU." She said Canada and the EU would build on their existing free trade agreement, known as CETA, with a broader "Alliance for the Future" aimed at creating "a common prosperity and economic security space".

She said the deeper relationship would be based not only on trade but also on shared democratic values. "Above all, dear Mark, Europe and Canada believe in democracy," von der Leyen said. "We believe that power does not belong to the strongest, the richest or the loudest, but to all of us. That democracies have the freedom to choose with whom to work."

Von der Leyen said the expanded partnership would cover advanced manufacturing, technology, defence production, the Arctic, energy, critical minerals, batteries, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, cybersecurity and economic security. "This is a partnership not against anyone else, but for our common strength," she said. "In short, we want to bring the relationship with Canada to the highest level possible." Canada this year became the first non-European country to join the EU's 150-billion-euro SAFE defence programme, giving Canadian companies access to joint procurement.

Trump's tariffs, along with his repeated talk of making Canada the 51st state, have driven Canada's efforts to deepen economic and security ties with Europe. Carney said on Tuesday that economic integration, once seen largely as an asset, is increasingly "being used as a weapon by certain countries". Canada has hit back at US tariffs and rejected trade terms that, Carney says, would weaken its sovereignty.

The EU, however, has taken a different route with Washington, reaching a trade agreement that set a 15 per cent US tariff ceiling on the vast majority of EU exports, while Europe removed tariffs on US industrial goods. That contrast has shaped Carney's push for closer European ties. In a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, he urged middle powers to work together to increase their leverage in a period of great-power rivalry. "When we only negotiate bilaterally with a hegemon, we negotiate from weakness. We accept what is offered," Carney said. "This is not sovereignty," he said. "It is the performance of sovereignty while accepting subordination."

Carney's Davos remarks drew a personal rebuke from Trump, and von der Leyen's outreach to Canada could sharpen tensions again. In an emailed statement on Wednesday, Iratxe Garca Prez, president of the Socialists and Democrats group in the European Parliament, praised Carney for "great courage confronting Donald Trump" and said allies were needed to defend "sovereignty, solidarity and international law". Together, the developments underlined the EU's bid to raise ties with Canada to their highest level as Ottawa looks beyond the US.

With PTI Inputs

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