{"id":848403,"date":"2026-09-15T08:06:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T08:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/848403\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T08:06:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T08:06:10","slug":"carney-heads-to-europe-for-high-stakes-speech-and-deeper-eu-ties-amid-us-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/848403\/","title":{"rendered":"Carney heads to Europe for high-stakes speech and deeper EU ties amid US clash"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is heading to Europe in the middle of a trade war<\/a> with U.S. President Donald Trump, seeking a deeper relationship with the European Union<\/a> that could give Canadians<\/a> greater freedom to work and study there.<\/p>\n

Canada will seek an arrangement that would allow Canadians to live and work in Europe without visas as part of a strategic partnership, according to a senior Canadian official familiar with the discussions.<\/p>\n

The official said Ottawa is not seeking to replicate the arrangements Norway or Switzerland have with the EU and did not propose \u201cassociate membership,\u201d a term used in a recent report. Canada instead wants a partnership tailored to its priorities, with investment at its core.<\/p>\n

Roughly 70% of Canadian exports go to the United States. Europe is central to Carney\u2019s effort to reduce that dependence.<\/p>\n

Carney has ruled out EU membership<\/a>, saying Canada instead wants \u201ca unique alliance\u201d with the bloc.<\/p>\n

Canadian government officials have consulted provinces and labor groups but have not settled on what form the relationship should take. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the talks publicly.<\/p>\n

The official said the goal is greater Canadian sovereignty, not less. \u201cWe\u2019re not looking at giving up our rights to Brussels or anything like that,\u201d the official said. \u201cIt\u2019s quite the opposite.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carney will attend European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen\u2019s State of the Union address Wednesday as a guest of honor before addressing the European Parliament<\/a> on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The trip puts him back on the European stage as relations with Washington reel from tariffs, threats and personal attacks since trade talks collapsed. His Davos speech<\/a> in January drew a personal rebuke from Trump, and another forceful defense of middle powers could raise the temperature again.<\/p>\n

Carney is also carrying to Europe a message that has won praise there but that European governments have been reluctant to follow: Middle powers should be willing to resist economic coercion and walk away from a bad deal.<\/p>\n

Canada has retaliated against U.S. tariffs<\/a> and rejected terms Carney says would weaken its sovereignty. Europe, by contrast, shelved retaliation and accepted a deal leaving most EU exports to the United States facing tariffs of up to 15%.<\/p>\n

That choice is striking given the EU\u2019s economic weight as the world\u2019s largest trading bloc.<\/p>\n

At Davos in January, Carney urged middle powers to band together rather than bow to great powers. When countries negotiate alone with a hegemon, he said, \u201cwe negotiate from weakness. We accept what is offered.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not sovereignty,\u201d Carney said. \u201cIt is the performance of sovereignty while accepting subordination.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a March European Parliament debate, French lawmaker Chlo\u00e9 Ridel said Carney had \u201csaid out loud what many Europeans think quietly,\u201d while German lawmaker Tobias Cremer urged Europe to \u201cshow the same courage as the Canadians have done in this moment of rupture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tobias Gehrke of the European Council on Foreign Relations said Europe accepted economic pain in hopes of preserving U.S. support for NATO and Ukraine, but gained neither firm security commitments nor stable ties with Washington.<\/p>\n

\u201cEuropean governments will be watching closely to see whether retaliation creates leverage or simply produces more escalation and an increasing bill,\u201d Gehrke said.<\/p>\n

Canadian Finance Minister Fran\u00e7ois-Philippe Champagne rejected the idea that Canada\u2019s push toward Europe<\/a> is simply an effort to gain leverage over Washington, saying Ottawa intends to keep working with the United States even as it builds stronger partnerships elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always about us,\u201d Champagne told The Associated Press. \u201cWe will still do things with the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Champagne also said the geopolitical landscape has fundamentally shifted. \u201cThe world has changed and America has changed,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I think the world has taken notice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carney’s trip follows his investment summit in Toronto, part of a broader push to attract global capital and reduce dependence on the United States.<\/p>\n

Canada and the EU already cooperate on trade, defense, energy, technology, and critical minerals. Bilateral trade reached about $147 billion (127 billion euros) in 2025, making the EU Canada\u2019s second-largest trading partner.<\/p>\n

Underscoring the push for closer ties, the European Parliament said Monday it will open an office in Ottawa, its 10th outside the EU, with a regional mandate extending to the Arctic.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt a time when the world is becoming more unpredictable, like-minded partners need to work even more closely together,\u201d European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said.<\/p>\n

Canada this year became the first non-European country to join the EU\u2019s 150-billion-euro ($173-billion) SAFE defense program, giving Canadian companies access to joint procurement. Canada and the EU will hold a summit in Montreal in late October.<\/p>\n

Ian Lesser of the German Marshall Fund in Brussels said Trump\u2019s tariffs and policies toward NATO and Greenland have accelerated efforts by Canada and Europe to diversify their economic and security ties.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sheer unpredictability emanating from Washington has given history a shove,\u201d Lesser said. He said many in Brussels still prefer to accommodate Washington or \u201cwait and see\u201d whether November\u2019s midterm elections produce a Congress able to constrain Trump.<\/p>\n

Carney will also travel to Britain to meet Prime Minister Andy Burnham for the first time. The fellow Everton supporters are expected at Everton\u2019s League Cup match against Wolverhampton on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press reporter Sam McNeil in Brussels contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is heading to Europe in the middle of a trade war…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":848404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,28,793,3139,3,111,21,19,22,20,25,24,965],"class_list":["post-848403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-business","tag-general-news","tag-international-trade","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=848403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/848404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=848403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=848403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=848403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}