Canada and the European Union agreed to ever-closer association but dropped the contentious idea of associate membership in a draft statement seen by Reuters ahead of a summit hosted by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in Montreal starting on Thursday.

Source: Reuters via SRN News

The draft declaration said work to define the relationship would continue until next year's EU-Canada summit, Reuters reported. Rapporteur, which also saw the agreed draft, said the new wording commits the EU and Canada “to define by the 2027 EU-Canada Summit the concept of an ever-closer association of Canada to the EU, short of full membership itself”.

Source: Rapporteur

Germany led the pushback

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's suggestion of “associate member”, made six weeks ago, had been a divisive issue in negotiations among EU countries on the summit declaration, with Germany leading a group that argued they could not sign up to a concept that had no legal status and had not yet been fleshed out, diplomats told Reuters. There is no precedent or legal definition for an EU “associate member”.

Rapporteur reported that Germany believed von der Leyen's proposal confused the debate about enlarging the EU to the east, by using the term 'member' for a looser relationship at a time when the EU is negotiating full accession with countries such as Ukraine. The draft also welcomes Canada's intention to join a Ukraine support loan, as European governments discuss a new loan on top of an existing €90 billion support package — yaani about 9,000 crore euros — Rapporteur said.

Why Canada is looking to Europe

Deeper ties to Europe are an important part of Carney's strategy to reduce Canada's overwhelming economic and security reliance on the United States since President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on Canadian imports, Reuters reported. Canada's efforts to draw closer to the EU also risk angering Trump as trade talks between Canada and the US continue; Trump previously called the EU's proposal to make Canada an associate member “laughable” and said that if he interpreted the move as a “hostile act”, the US might stop trading with Europe “on many things”.

Carney told reporters on Tuesday that the summit this week is the launch of further formal negotiations that will take another year. “The good news is it doesn't matter about specific names or nomenclature,” Carney said. “What matters is the difference it will make to the lives of Canadians.”