EU chief Ursula von der Leyen raised the prospect on Wednesday (September 16, 2026) of Canada becoming the 27-nation bloc’s first “associate member”, as she pitched closer cooperation on tech, defence and energy to Canadian leader Mark Carney.
Mr. Carney has been pursuing closer ties with the European Union, as both seek to pivot away from a hostile United States under President Donald Trump. “We will work on intelligent manufacturing. We will create a tech alliance. We will integrate defence industrial bases. Under EU rules, member states have to approve any form of partnership with a third country and it was unclear how much support Ms. von der Leyen’s proposal would receive from capitals.
Ms. von der Leyen told the European Parliament in Strasbourg that as democracies face a “fracture in the international rules-based system”, Brussels and Ottawa needed to pull closer together. “I would like to work with you on opening the door for Canada to be the first associate member of the EU,” Ms. von der Leyen told the Canadian Prime Minister, who was attending her annual keynote speech — drawing a standing ovation in the chamber. The first foreign head of government to attend the annual “State of the European Union” speech — before addressing the parliament himself the next day — his visit is meant to act as a catalyst ahead of an EU-Canada summit in Montreal next month. Ms. von der Leyen said it was time to move from cooperation based on trade to a broader “alliance for the future” and “bring the relationship with Canada to the highest level possible”. We will make the Arctic a flagship joint project,” she said. “We don’t really know yet what it means,” said Tobias Cremer, a centre-left European lawmaker from Germany and the main sponsor of a March resolution urging stronger EU-Canada cooperation, after Ms. von der Leyen’s “associate membership” pitch.
