Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney welcomed European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s proposal to open the door for Canada to become the European Union’s first associate member during an address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Thursday (17 Sep).
Carney described the initiative as being “about sovereignty” and argued that modern resilience now requires secure access to strategic sectors including artificial intelligence (AI), semiconductors, critical minerals, payment systems, clean energy technologies, vaccines and space-based communications.
Welcoming von der Leyen’s vision of moving “beyond CETA to an alliance for the future”, Carney said deeper Canada-EU cooperation would strengthen sovereignty, security and economic opportunity.
He stressed he was “not proposing a third bloc” or seeking “power to dominate others”, but instead pursuing resilience so “no one can control our open markets, impair our sovereignty, threaten our territorial integrity, or undermine our freedoms, our democracies, our rule of law.”
Speaking to reporters following von der Leyen’s announcement, US President Donald Trump called the proposal “laughable” and warned that Washington could impose tariffs on the European Union if it viewed the move as a hostile act. Trump said the response would depend on whether the initiative reflected “a good intention” or “a bad intention”.
ℹ️ European Parliament Multimedia Centre
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