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This Thursday, Prime Minister Mark Carney is due to address the opening of the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Guest addresses like this aren’t unheard of, but they have mostly been reserved in recent years for civil society figures focused on Ukraine, which was already a signal that something significant was to be announced, and reporting has suggested that some sort of new relationship between Canada and the European Union was in the cards.
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Then on Saturday, a 5,000-word Wall Street Journal exclusive gave us a hint at what might be coming. The reporting claimed that the prime minister has spent months using his extensive European rolodex and connections to push for a deeper relations with the EU. According to the Journal, Carney even “suggested Canada take on a new title: Associate Member of the European Union.” Government sources challenged the story later in the day, saying the reporting “overstates” what is being discussed.
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Carney owes all Canadians a clear explanation of what is actually on the table, but even if we don’t know for sure just yet, it’s important we have a clear eyed view about what would actually be in Canada’s interests. Getting closer to Europe and the European Union is appropriate in a world where Canada is in need of closer economic and security relationships with likeminded allies and friends, as Ottawa seeks to lessen dependence on the United States.
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But this does not, and should not, mean joining the EU even in an “associate” role, even if the government is not currently pursuing anything so formal. The whole reason the government is seeking close relationships with other allies and partners is precisely because there is a newfound sense of urgency in protecting and reasserting Canadian independence. We cannot trick ourselves into giving up sovereignty to Brussels.
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I am of the view that we must lessen our dependence on a much less reliable and volatile United States no matter who succeeds Donald Trump as president. A president who muses about annexation and slaps tariffs on his closest ally and biggest trading partner isn’t just an aberration, he is himself a symptom of an America that haw changed. At the same time, we cannot delude ourselves into thinking we will ever be able to entirely detach ourselves from America. They will likely remain our biggest trading partner and most important security partner.
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Turning to Europe as a place we can build closer economic and defence arrangements with is a fitting a approach in the light of how relations with the U.S. have devolved. But don’t be fooled into thinking this means we must therefore join the European Union.
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We still have no idea what being an “associate member” would mean, and the Wall Street Journal reporting doesn’t make that clear. There is currently no such thing as an associate member of the EU. There are other arrangements like the European Free Trade Association, which includes Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein who are not full members, but three of whom participate in the European single market via the European Economic Area, with Switzerland’s access instead coming through its own bilateral deals, and all four of whom are in the Schengen Area, meaning open borders with the EU. There are a variety of different levels of integration within the the bloc. Some countries are not in the Schengen Area like Ireland. Some are not in the monetary union and don’t use the Euro. But whatever is being proposed for Canada appears to be new.