“Our proposal is simple: it is about ‘association without accession’”, she said in a speech at the C.D. Howe Institute in Montreal, where the 21st EU-Canada summit opened on Thursday. “Instead of full membership, we propose a shared ambition and vision”.
She said the status would be open only to the EU’s closest partners outside Europe, and that the two sides could build a partnership far closer to membership than anything they have achieved so far.
That would require tighter policy coordination on artificial intelligence, climate, energy and security, she said, as well as closer alignment of governance mechanisms, which “entails a wider range of joint actions by the Commission and the Canadian government”.
“This cooperation also covers relations between our parliaments and at the judicial level”, she added.
Canada would also take a bigger role in the Erasmus+ student exchange and Horizon Europe research programmes, she said.
“It is the ability to act together. That is why we will build an Alliance for the Future, and we will start with Canada”, she said, adding that sovereignty in a world of growing rivalry is no longer merely the freedom to act alone.
Germany objects
The idea has caused controversy among EU capitals. A group of member states led by Germany opposed including wording on it in the summit’s final statement, because Berlin considers the name ill-chosen. Germany promotes its own concept of “associate membership”, which would be reserved for EU candidate countries such as Ukraine and the Western Balkan states.
Carney: name does not matter
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said the new partnership would strengthen Canadian sovereignty and that its name was unimportant.
“The new alliance is not a marketing exercise. The name does not matter”, he told a news conference on a C$1.6 billion government investment in Canadian AI company Cohere.
He said the partnership would make Canada more resilient to shocks “from certain countries and technologies” and allow Canadians to “live as they want”.
“The European Union is a credible partner”, he said.
Asked about U.S. President Donald Trump’s description of closer Canada-EU ties as a “hostile act”, Carney recalled his earlier remarks that “a Canada that is stronger at home is master of its own house, more sovereign - and is a better partner for Americans, and the U.S. will see the benefits”.
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Source: PAP