Britain’s pro-Europeans could be forgiven for feeling a tinge of jealousy as Mark Carney, the Prime Minister of Canada – a nation more than 1,000 miles from the EU – had the red-carpet rolled out for him in Strasbourg this week.
Carney, a former governor of the Bank of England, soaked up a standing ovation at the European Parliament on Thursday as he welcomed an unprecedented idea to make his country, on the other side of an ocean, an ‘associate member’ of the EU.
Britain, meanwhile, which has a land border with the EU, has been locked in tortuous negotiations with the bloc since Labour came to power over a Brexit ‘reset’. Those talks appear to remain deadlocked.
But does the new ‘associate member’ category represent an opportunity for the UK to have a different kind of relationship with the bloc it voted to leave ten years ago? Or does it mean the EU is turning its back on tinkering with its divorce agreement with its troublesome neighbour?
Some in Europe think the former – that Britain could be offered a new route towards much closer relations with the European Union.
EU ‘has broken a taboo’
The proposal is striking because no such category currently exists. EU treaties allow European countries to apply for membership, which rules out Canada as a conventional candidate.
Nor has commission President, Ursula von der Leyen who made the offer to Canada, explained precisely what rights or obligations an associate member would have.
But the significance may lie precisely in Brussels’ willingness to invent something new – and potentially establish a model that could eventually be applied to Britain.
Mika Aaltola, a Finnish centre-right MEP and vice-chair of the EU-UK Parliamentary Partnership Assembly, said the offer had “broken a long-standing taboo”.
“The EU has resisted flexible membership categories for years, now the Commission itself has put one on the table,” he said. “That changes the geometry for the UK too.”
For Britain, he added, such an arrangement “could square the circle: deep integration on security, defence industry and economic resilience, without reopening the domestic membership debate”.
Labour Movement for Europe chair Stella Creasy told The i Paper: “Even if this doesn’t progress past aspiration there can be no doubting that Mark Carney has shown what you can achieve with a clear ambitious message, and a focus on common challenges not red lines.
“For the UK its a sobering reminder that if we don’t rebuild our partnerships for peace and prosperity with our neighbours, others will”
Naomi Smith, chief executive of the pro-European campaign group Best for Britain, said Carney was treating the EU “as the strategic asset it is” and argued Britain should go further than its present approach.
“Voters want it, our economy needs it, and Burnham can deliver,” she said, arguing that Britain and Canada faced similar pressures as Trump’s trade policies squeezed their economies and raised doubts about the reliability of the US as a trading partner.
Obstacles for Canada
Yet there are substantial obstacles before “associate membership” becomes anything more than an eye-catching political label.
Creating a formal new EU status could require complicated legal changes and the agreement of all 27 member states. Some governments are wary of giving Canada preferential access to the European market or antagonising Washington.
The history of EU-Canada relations itself offers a warning. Their Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, CETA, was signed nearly a decade ago and is provisionally in force, yet 10 EU countries – including France, Italy and Poland – have still not ratified it.
There are also longstanding sensitivities inside the EU about allowing non-members to enjoy the advantages of integration without accepting its obligations – precisely the argument that dominated the Brexit negotiations.
No 10 insiders are cool on the idea of the UK becoming an ‘associate member’, with a source saying “it’s a matter for the EU and Canada”.
And nor is everyone in the EU convinced it would be a good fit for the UK. A senior EU official told Politico the idea of ‘associate membership’ was specifically tailored for Candada as a non European country.
“It cannot join the EU,” they said. “Norway shouldn’t be looking at this and thinking ‘oh we want more.’ This isn’t for them. Their route to that is to join the EU. Same for the UK.”
UK reset deadlocked
Carney and Burnham watched an Everton game together on Wednesday night where they were set to discuss “a wide range of things”.
“Strengthening and deepening our coalition of progressive international partners can only be a positive thing,” a UK Government source said.
Burnham is currently trying to finalise the Brexit reset begun under Sir Keir Starmer, which seemed on the edge of an agreement before he took over as Prime Minister.
Labour wants a “deeper, more ambitious relationship” with the EU, his new chief negotiator Hamish Falconer has said.
But there are still sticking points with the UK’s push for inclusion in new “Made in Europe” laws to favour European businesses, in return for cutting university fees for EU students, as revealed by The i Paper, so far falling flat.
Von der Leyen made her overture to Carney during her annual State of the Union address on Wednesday to say she wanted Canada to become the first country to acquire the new status – potentially breaking a longstanding EU taboo against creating different categories of membership.
Speaking to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney watching from the chamber, von der Leyen said the upheaval in the international order meant Europe had to “urgently reimagine our partnerships”.
“I would like to work with you on opening the door for Canada to be the first associate member of the EU,” she said.
In response on Thursday Carney welcomed the proposal, telling the European Parliament: “An alliance for the future is a unique, positive approach that we will define together.”
The EU and Canada are now expected to explore a sweeping “Alliance for the Future”, potentially covering technology, defence industries, energy, critical minerals, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, cyber security and the Arctic.
The proposal also reflects a wider shift in Brussels. Faced with Russian aggression, Chinese economic competition and a far less predictable US, the EU is increasingly considering how trusted democracies outside the bloc can be plugged into European structures.
The dramatic EU overture to Canada is seen in large part a consequence of Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
Both Canada and the EU have been hit by US tariffs, while Trump’s attacks on Nato and repeated threats against Canada and Greenland have shaken assumptions about the permanence of the transatlantic relationship. Canada has sought to reduce its overwhelming economic dependence on the United States, while Europeans have accelerated efforts to build greater strategic autonomy.
At the same time, Brussels sees Carney’s Canada as an unusually compatible partner. Both are Nato allies, strong supporters of Ukraine and defenders of the multilateral international system.
“We see the world with the same eyes,” von der Leyen said, pointing to cooperation on Ukraine, defence, raw materials and supply chains. “But above all, Europe and Canada believe in democracy.”
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