Canada and the European Union are moving toward closer cooperation, with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and EU leaders vowing “close cooperation” outside the bloc’s formal membership. The push comes as both sides seek to navigate a turbulent global trade environment and reduce reliance on larger powers.
Carney also announced that Canada has applied to join the British-led Joint Expeditionary Force, a military coalition of ten European NATO countries. The move signals Canada’s intent to deepen defense ties with Europe.
A New World Order?
Carney’s speech on Thursday was described by some observers as a historic moment. British political commentator Alastair Campbell, former communications chief to ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair, wrote on X that “a new world order really is being shaped and it is not how Trump’s USA imagined.” He added that “it used to be taken as read that the US President led the free world. No more.”
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who has repeatedly clashed with Trump, posted a playful image of the EU flag with a Canadian maple leaf appended.
Trump, for his part, has been less welcoming of Canada’s European ambitions, calling the prospect of EU associate membership “laughable.” He told reporters on Wednesday that “if it’s a good intention, that’s fine. If it’s a bad intention, we’ll put very heavy tariffs on Europe.”
Deepening Ties
While the specific label of “associate membership” appears to be an escalation, Canada and Europe have been pursuing closer ties for some time, partly to weather the storm Trump has unleashed on global trade.
The EU is Canada’s second-largest trading partner after the U.S., with a 2017 free trade agreement eliminating most tariffs between them, though some trading barriers remain. They signed a defense partnership in June 2025, and Canada joined the EU’s military procurement program this February, giving its companies greater access to European contracts. Negotiations on a digital trade agreement followed in March.
“Middle powers must act together because if you are not at the table, you are on the menu,” Carney told the World Economic Forum in January.
Caution on Both Sides
Enthusiasm for closer ties has so far been accompanied by caution on both sides.
“We’re not there,” Canada’s incoming ambassador to Brussels, Jonathan Wilkinson, told reporters in Strasbourg when asked about associate membership. “What we’re focused on is actually driving results.”
German government spokesperson Stefan Kornelius said that while the idea was good, “we should reconsider the terminology — the label — associated with it.”
It is not clear how associate membership might work, nor what rights and responsibilities Canada might gain. The plan would need buy-in from all 27 EU members, an often fractious alliance with their own ideologies and geopolitical and domestic practical considerations.
Opening the door to a perceived lighter form of EU membership, just weeks after Icelanders voted against seeking to join the bloc, could risk dulling hopes of further EU expansion and revive fears of further disunity.
Practical Realities
There are practical realities, too. Despite recent acrimony, tariff threats and trade boycotts, roughly 70% of Canadian exports go to the U.S., the two countries bound together by a 5,525-mile border, as well as centuries of cultural and historical ties.
The U.S.-Canada trading relationship, in which individual car parts often cross the border multiple times during the manufacturing process, cannot easily be replaced by trade that requires crossing thousands of miles of the Atlantic Ocean.
Nonetheless, Carney’s stated calculation is that, by diversifying their partners in trade, military and other areas, middle powers can reduce their reliance on big beasts such as the U.S. and improve their resilience in an increasingly belligerent world.
He will hope to strengthen this cast next month, when Canada and the EU are due to hold a summit in Montreal on Oct. 29 and 30. For him, the goal is to reduce dependence even while maintaining relationships with larger powers.
“The objective is not self-sufficiency,” he said Thursday. “It is collective resilience.”