{"id":950486,"date":"2026-10-29T09:48:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T09:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/950486\/"},"modified":"2026-10-29T09:48:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T09:48:10","slug":"european-union-backtracks-on-canada-becoming-associate-member-european-union-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/950486\/","title":{"rendered":"European Union backtracks on Canada becoming \u2018associate member\u2019 | European Union News"},"content":{"rendered":"

German Chancellor Merz and other EU leaders reportedly pushed for the terms to be removed from the draft statement.<\/p>\n

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Published On 29 Oct 202629 Oct 2026<\/p>\n

The European Union has dropped the idea that Canada should become an \u201cassociate member\u201d of the bloc, according to the German news agency dpa and the Reuters news agency.<\/p>\n

In a joint draft Canada-EU statement, the terms \u201cassociate member\u201d and \u201cassociated membership\u201d have been removed, the agencies reported on Thursday, adding that officials planned to make the statement public on Friday.<\/p>\n

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This comes as the EU-Canada summit in Montreal, hosted by Canadian Prime Minister \u2060Mark Carney, is expected to start on Thursday.<\/p>\n

In September, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen raised the prospect of Canada becoming the 27-nation EU\u2019s first \u201cassociate member\u201d<\/a>, a striking overture as both seek to pivot away from the United States under President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

However, Reuters and dpa report that von der Leyen\u2019s suggestion of associate membership has been a divisive issue in negotiations among EU countries over \u2060the summit declaration, with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and several other leaders of fellow member nations pushing for the terms to be removed from the draft, according to diplomats.<\/p>\n

The statement now calls for an \u201cever closer association\u201d between Canada and the EU, and includes a joint initiative to improve international connectivity between Europe, Canada and Asia through \u201cnew \u2060subsea cable infrastructure\u201d.<\/p>\n

It also proposes conducting a joint feasibility study on Canadian liquefied natural gas exports to Europe and \u2060enabling young Canadians and Europeans to work across the Atlantic.<\/p>\n

Deeper ties to Europe are an important part of Carney\u2019s strategy to reduce Canada\u2019s economic and security reliance on the US since Trump imposed tariffs on Canadian goods. Still, Canada\u2019s efforts to draw closer to the EU risk angering Trump as trade talks between Canada and the US continue.<\/p>\n

Trump previously called the EU\u2019s proposal to make Canada an associate member \u201claughable\u201d and said if he interpreted the move as a \u201chostile act\u201d, the US might stop trading with Europe \u201con many things\u201d.<\/p>\n

Carney has aimed to deepen ties with the EU, Canada\u2019s second-largest trading partner, since trade relations with the US, Ottawa\u2019s largest economic partner, have been hampered under Trump.<\/p>\n

The Canadian leader told reporters on Tuesday that the summit would be the launch of formal negotiations between the EU and Canada that would take another year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe good news is it doesn\u2019t matter about specific names or nomenclature,\u201d Carney said. \u201cWhat matters is the difference it will make to the lives of Canadians.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"German Chancellor Merz and other EU leaders reportedly pushed for the terms to be removed from the draft…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":950487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,4717,3456,6816,637,10816,1687,44,714,1689,772,1690],"class_list":["post-950486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-energy","tag-europe","tag-european-union","tag-france","tag-germany","tag-international-trade","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-trade-war","tag-united-states","tag-us-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=950486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/950487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=950486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=950486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=950486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}