Canada and the European Union met in Montreal. They want to work much more closely together. Canada hopes to become a special kind of EU member by June. But some EU countries do not like that idea.
Canada’s two-day summit with the European Union closed in Montreal on Friday with a pact its architects call the Alliance for the Future. Mark Carney, Ursula von der Leyen and António Costa announced deals on digital trade, critical minerals and access to European supercomputers, plus a Canadian contribution to a €90bn loan for Ukraine. Carney went further than ever before: Canada, he said, is working to become the bloc’s first associate member, with talks to conclude in June.
No such status exists, and there lies the difficulty. Germany reportedly called the phrase a red line, and it was struck from the joint statement, which promises instead “an ever-closer association … short of full membership itself”. Sceptics fear a hollow title that would baffle countries genuinely queueing to join. Carney insists the alliance is not retaliatory but a way of “reinforcing sovereignty”; Donald Trump has warned of fresh tariffs should he judge it unfriendly.