In her annual State of the Union (SOTEU) address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Ursula von der Leyen announced that the European Union is ready to open the door for Canada to obtain the status of its first “associate member”. For the President of the Commission, the EU and Canada see “the world with the same eyes”, listing the sectors in which to collaborate, from a technological alliance, to the integration of defense industrial bases and a joint project on the Arctic.
The announcement, however, does not come as a surprise: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, expected in Strasbourg for a speech tomorrow 17 September, had already declared a few days ago that he was aiming for a “single alliance” with the European Union. All this while relations between Ottawa and Washington are experiencing a historic rupture: Carney’s European trip follows the failure of trade negotiations with the United States last month, which triggered a series of retaliatory tariff measures.
It must be said immediately that the status of “associate member” does not yet exist for the European Union: however, it is not the first time that the possibility of introducing an institution of this type has been discussed. Already in May 2026, the German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, had proposed the same idea for Ukraine, with the aim of giving new impetus to talks aimed at ending more than four years of war with Russia.
What is ‘associate member’ status: trade agreements with Canada
As mentioned, to date there is no “associated member” of the EU, since this possibility does not exist. It is in fact a category not foreseen by the Union treaties, which does not represent full membership of the Community and does not even imply entry into the common market: Carney himself has reportedly instructed a special envoy to Europe to explore the possibilities “short of full membership of the EU or its common market”.
The objective, therefore, seems to be to give life to highly integrated cooperation, a tailor-made status to also allow the EU to strengthen its role at a global level without however distorting the identity of the Union.
On a concrete level, the sectors of collaboration are clearly the most strategic ones. According to rumors reported in the press, Brussels and Ottawa are working to strengthen trade in goods, services and labour, particularly in energy, artificial intelligence, defense and critical raw materials. At the same time, there are discussions on the table for large projects such as submarine cables, data centers, cloud infrastructure and satellite networks.
Among the hypotheses under study there would also be the reduction of trade barriers, the rerouting of gas pipelines to guarantee Europe access to Canadian gas and even the right for Canadian citizens to live and work in Europe without a visa. It would, in fact, be an unprecedented relationship with the EU for a country outside the European continent.
How the EU accession procedure works
To understand how the European Union should move now, we must first know how the EU accession procedure normally works, which is divided into three main steps and which requires the unanimity of all 27 EU member states. We start with the candidacy, with the application that must be presented to the Council of the EU and evaluated by the Commission; in case of approval, accession negotiations follow, during which the candidate country implements European laws and standards (the so-called community acquis).
This is the longest and most complex phase, which requires years (if not decades) to allow candidate countries to adapt their legislation and demonstrate that they can satisfy the Copenhagen criteria, which include:
- The presence of stable institutions to guarantee democracy, the rule of law, human rights;
- A reliable market economy capable of coping with market forces and competitive pressure within the Union;
- The ability to accept the obligations arising from membership, including the ability to effectively implement the rules, standards and policies that constitute the body of Union law (theacquisition).
The last step concerns actual membership, with a treaty that must be approved by the Commission, European Council and European Parliament, and then signed and ratified by all member states.
What procedures should the EU put in place
Canada’s accession as a member state would be de facto impossible due to a geographical issue: Article 49 of the Treaty on European Union provides, among other things, that each candidate country must be a European state.
It is no coincidence that some experts interviewed by Politico considered the hypothesis unlikely, but not impossible: according to Ian Bond of the Center for European Reform it would be “extremely difficult to argue that Canada is a European country”, as has instead been done for Turkey. But even after passing this test, the economic obstacle would remain, because Canada would have to erect a customs border with the United States and apply European duties and regulations on imports from the USA, with highly penalizing effects on its own economy: the United States, in fact, absorbs around 70% of Canadian exports.
Among other things, as highlighted by ISPI, 10 out of 27 EU countries (including Italy) have not yet ratified CETA, the EU-Canada trade agreement signed almost 10 years ago.
Precisely for these reasons, attention has shifted to intermediate formulas: Canada, therefore, would not become the 28th EU member state. At this point, the Union’s next steps depend on the type of institution they intend to create: if the objective is to create a strengthened economic relationship (the version that Canada seems to prefer), there would be no need to change the EU’s founding treaties.
In this case, the legal basis would be Article 217 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, which allows the Union to conclude “association agreements” with third countries, providing for mutual rights and obligations, joint actions and special procedures. It is the same article on which, for example, the 2014 association agreements with Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova are based. Small aside regarding Ukraine: Kiev applied for EU membership at the end of February 2022, officially becoming a candidate country the following June. Accession negotiations formally began in June 2024: Ukraine will now need to implement reforms to align with EU regulations and standards.
If, however, the EU’s objective is to introduce a true “associate member” status, which would allow countries such as Canada and Ukraine to become part of the European institutions, then it would be necessary to amend the Treaty of European Union, with a possible revision of Article 49 of the Treaty of the European Union, which regulates the conditions of membership. This would require an extremely complex and long legislative process, with the final changes coming into force only after being ratified by all member states.
