Carney wants Canada to be an ‘associate member’ of the EU: report

Canada is not seeking to join the European Union as a full-fledged member, but Prime Minister Mark Carney is reportedly testing how close the country can get via deeper economic and societal integration.

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According to the Wall Street Journal, the Canadian leader has suggested to some of his European peers that Canada should become the EU’s first-ever “associate member,” a status that doesn’t yet legally exist within the enclave. Moreover, the Journal reported that unnamed officials on both sides said the 27-member EU, traditionally rigid about who joins its ranks, is amenable to the concept.

While early, Carney has reportedly informed his officials the result “will be the reorienting of an economy and a society that for half a century has been dominated by the U.S.”

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The bureaucratic talks are “terribly unsexy,” one Canadian official told the Journal, but they are “terribly consequential nonetheless.”

The news comes as Carney is set to address the European Parliament and meet with members “to strengthen Canada’s ties with the EU in trade, investment, and security.” His speech will come the day after EU President Ursula von der Leyen announces a new deal with Canada to broaden collaboration on defence, trade and other areas.

Meanwhile, on Sept. 20th, the prime minister will return to Europe when he meets French President Emmanuel Macron in Saint-Pierre-and-Miquelon, a French archipelago colony of France about 25 kilometres south of Newfoundland, where his office said the two will discuss “partnership in strategic sectors, including aerospace, energy and critical minerals, and advanced technologies such as quantum, satellites, and supercomputing.”

His visit is the first official one made by a Canadian prime minister, AFP reported.

Some of these discussions are a continuation of the many that Carney has reportedly had in response to the souring of Canada’s deeply integrated relationship with the United States under President Donald Trump and his administration.

Instead of pulling Canada closer to the U.S. on America’s terms, the trade war has pushed Ottawa towards the EU and its “$21 trillion single market.”

The concept would allow Canada’s goods, services and workers in defence, energy, AI, and critical minerals to “move frictionlessly” in Europe.

“While there are multiple hurdles to dance around, European officials envision major Canadian companies could effectively lock in as single market suppliers for decades to come,” the Journal reported.

Unnamed officials said Macron and Carney have discussed the possibility of Canadians living and working in Europe without requiring a visa and that the prime minister has also expressed an interest in joining the EU’s study-abroad program, Erasmus+ — an exchange program supporting education, training, youth, and sport across Europe.

Canada and the EU are also examining underwater cables, the joint construction of data centres, cloud storage and new satellite networks that don’t involve U.S. tech giants, the Journal said. Carney is also keen to lay gas pipelines across the Atlantic and utilize icebreakers so Canadian fertilizer can be shipped through the Northwest Passage.

A lot of discussion occurred on the sidelines of this year’s G-7 leaders meeting in France, where officials from both sides reportedly outlined “11 stack items” to allow for deeper collaboration and less reliance on U.S. technologies, defence equipment and trade. One French official told the Journal they were shocked at how quickly their Canadian counterparts wanted to proceed on several policy cooperation areas.

Still, there has been some skepticism among some European officials that Carney’s ambitions aren’t grounded in reality, noting that 10 nations — including France and Italy — have yet to formally ratify the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) after almost a decade. Others are trying to determine if Canada is using the EU as leverage in trade negotiations with the Trump administration, and some are concerned that if Canada is offered too good a deal as a non-member, some member nations may leave and request a similar arrangement.

There was a healthy amount of doubt, bordering on incredulity, from some Conservative MPs on X responding to the Journal story.

“What fresh hell is this,” York Centre’s Roman Baber wrote, adding that the EU is “falling apart” due to over-regulation, bad immigration policies and censorship.

“We are Canadian, we are not European. @MarkJCarney did not campaign on joining the EU and he did not consult Parliament!”

Calgary MP Shuv Majumdar said becoming the 28th member of the EU is as bad an idea as becoming the 51st state was and that Canada’s “sovereignty is not for sale… to anyone.”

“Prime Minister, can we please just have the self respect to build our own country with our own money and our own people,” he wrote. “Can we get competitive with Washington and the world, and unleash the economic powerhouse that Canadians demand and deserve?”

The 51st state was a bad idea.

So too would be the EU’s 28th state.

Our sovereignty is not for sale, not to America, not to Europe, not to Beijing, not to anyone.

Prime Minister, can we please just have the self respect to build our own country with our own money and our own… https://t.co/X4qr292H9c

— Shuv Majumdar (@shuvmajumdar) September 13, 2026

Elgin—St. Thomas—London South’s Andrew Lawton called the idea “asinine.”

“Now is the time to assert our sovereignty, not cede it to one of the most over-regulated, heavy handed bureaucracies in the world,” he posted Sunday. 

Deputy Conservative Leader Melissa Lantsman said Canada is not a “franchise” other countries can “buy into.”

“Oh, and Canadians again learned about this from the Wall Street Journal, not Ottawa,” she posted. Never an election issue. No debate. No vote. Parliament hasn’t said a word.”

While overseas this week, Carney will also travel to the U.K. for a first meeting with its new prime minister, Andy Burnham, on “defence and security, energy, artificial intelligence, and critical minerals.”

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