{"id":626372,"date":"2026-09-16T11:28:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T11:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/626372\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T11:28:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T11:28:13","slug":"eu-chief-opens-door-for-canada-to-become-first-associate-member-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/626372\/","title":{"rendered":"EU chief opens door for Canada to become first associate member \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

European Commission<\/a> president Ursula von der Leyen<\/a> has pitched the idea of much closer co-operation between the EU<\/a> and Canada<\/a>, bringing the relationship to the \u201chighest level possible\u201d.<\/p>\n

This meant opening the door to Canada becoming something she called an \u201cassociate member\u201d of the EU, a concept that does not legally exist at present.<\/p>\n

Canadian prime minister Mark Carney<\/a> present in the European Parliament<\/a> Strasbourg chamber for the speech, and is due to deliver his own address to MEPs on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"Canada'sCanada’s prime minister Mark Carney smiles as he listens to the European Commission president. Photograph: Jean-Christophe Verhaegen\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

Europe finds itself in an \u201copenly hostile\u201d world where old relationships have \u201cfrayed\u201d and an aggressive Russia wages a war on the Continent, von der Leyen said.<\/p>\n

In her annual state-of-the-union speech, the head of the EU\u2019s powerful executive warned that hybrid attacks were being carried out by \u201cRussian operatives\u201d on Europe soil, which constituted attacks on individual member states, but also the wider union.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should be under no illusions about what is happening here, hybrid threats facing Europe are less and less hybrid and less and less threats. Cyberattacks and sabotage, arson and drone incursions, they are ramping up every day,\u201d the German politician said.<\/p>\n

The EU\u2019s system of decision-making had not kept pace with a changing and more dangerous world, the commission president said.<\/p>\n

There was an urgent need for a consensus on how EU states should respond to Moscow\u2019s hybrid incidents and incursions, which she said \u201cfall below armed aggression but clearly threaten our national security\u201d.<\/p>\n

Von der Leyen proposed the new mechanism that would \u201cflank\u201d Nato\u2019s existing article four procedure that allows a member of the western military alliance to report security concerns for debate.<\/p>\n

This is separate to Nato\u2019s article five clause, the key security guarantee of the alliance, which treats a military attack on one member as an attack on the entire group.<\/p>\n

Delivering her speech to MEPs in the European Parliament, von der Leyen said the EU lacked a common playbook to counter Russia\u2019s hybrid attacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe it is time for Europe\u2019s own Article 4 \u2013 or an emergency security protocol. When triggered by one member state, all member states would convene to co-ordinate a European response to deter further escalation and to mitigate the impact,\u201d von der Leyen said.<\/p>\n

\"EuropeanEuropean Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen and European Parliament president, Roberta Metsola with the prime minister of Canada, Mark Carney, at the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Photograph: EPA <\/p>\n

The president of the commission, the powerful Brussels-based body that proposes EU laws and regulations, said Europe would \u201cdefend each and every single square metre of its territory\u201d.<\/p>\n

Von der Leyen called for summits focused on security bringing together the EU\u2019s 27 national leaders and the leaders of the UK, Ukraine, Canada and other allies.<\/p>\n

Von der Leyen criticised Israel\u2019s E1 plan to expand settlements in Occupied Palestinian Territories as \u201cunacceptable\u201d.<\/p>\n

The centre-right politician said the commission last year had proposed an EU-Israel free trade deal be suspended, but member states had been \u201cunable to build the necessary majorities\u201d, to approve such sanctions on Israel.<\/p>\n

More recently the commission has been criticised for refusing to table a proposed ban on trade coming from illegal Israeli settlements.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in her lengthy address, von der Leyen said Europe\u2019s economy had withstood the impact of the Iran war \u201cbetter than expected\u201d, but businesses were facing real pressure from higher energy prices.<\/p>\n

The EU\u2019s trade deficit with China had reached a \u201ctipping point\u201d that was leading to the \u201cunsustainable\u201d closure of factories and plants in the industrial heartlands of Europe, she said.<\/p>\n

Negotiations between Brussels and Beijing had to rebalance the trading relationship, the commission president said.<\/p>\n

Von der Leyen said a heatwave that swept across Europe this summer was a \u201cmere preview\u201d of a heating climate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere can be no repeat of this summer. This is why we will also soon present a European heatwave plan. We need better early warning systems and better health preparedness,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in her lengthy address, von der Leyen announced plans for EU restrictions to prohibit children under the age of 13 from accessing social media platforms, called the EU Kids Act. <\/p>\n

Between the ages of 13 and 15 teenagers would have access to \u201cmini accounts\u201d set up and supervised by their parents, which had limited features and restrictions on screen time, she said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has pitched the idea of much closer co-operation between the EU…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626373,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[289,5148,1712,42,43,40,38,41,39,1713],"class_list":["post-626372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-canada","tag-european-union","tag-european-commission","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-ursula-von-der-leyen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=626372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}