{"id":27434,"date":"2026-11-02T03:54:41","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T03:54:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/visegradpost.com\/?p=27434"},"modified":"2026-11-02T03:54:41","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T03:54:41","slug":"carney-eu-associate-membership-canada-dw-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/visegradpost.com\/en\/2026\/11\/02\/carney-eu-associate-membership-canada-dw-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Carney backs \u201cassociate membership\u201d of the EU for Canada, a status no country holds and Berlin resists"},"content":{"rendered":"<section aria-labelledby=\"hpd-nfnmyipv-inrtzyj-hlesdml-zofjqh\" class=\"auk-zvimcvi-inrtzyj\" lang=\"en\">\n<h2 id=\"hpd-nfnmyipv-inrtzyj-hlesdml-zofjqh\">In brief<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Mark Carney spoke to DW after talks in Montreal with EU leaders on a closer Canada-EU partnership.<\/li>\n<li>Ursula von der Leyen floated \u201cassociate membership\u201d, a status no other country holds; Friedrich Merz\u2019s government resists the label.<\/li>\n<li>Carney named space technologies, artificial intelligence and critical minerals as areas for expanded cooperation.<\/li>\n<li>He says diversifying away from the United States is needed, yet admits its weight would be very hard to replace.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/section>\n<p>Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney used a DW interview on Friday to explain why Ottawa wants a much closer relationship with Brussels, speaking after talks in Montreal with EU leaders on the details of a new partnership.<\/p>\n<h2>Montreal talks and a stated lesson from Washington<\/h2>\n<p>An EU delegation led by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa met Carney and other Canadian officials in Montreal. Carney then spoke to DW\u2019s Katharina Kroll at Port of Montreal Tower. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/canadian-pm-mark-carney-discusses-talks-with-the-eu-overdependence-on-the-us-and-how-to-deal-with-donald-trump-in-a-dw-interview\/a-79811469?maca=en-rss-en-eu-2092-rdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">DW<\/a>, he said Canada is seeking closer EU ties to \u201cdiversify and deepen\u201d partnerships beyond the Americas.<\/p>\n<p>The backdrop is a difficult negotiation with the United States, Canada\u2019s biggest trading partner. Carney put the conclusion in blunt terms: \u201cThe lesson we\u2019ve taken, Canadians as a whole, is we\u2019re overdependent on the United States. Too closely connected to the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>What \u201cassociate membership\u201d would mean<\/h2>\n<p>Von der Leyen has floated the idea of an \u201cassociate membership\u201d, a status that does not yet exist for any other country. The German government of Chancellor Friedrich Merz resists creating the label. Carney appeared to speak in its favour, noting that both von der Leyen and Canada use the term.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"auk-whxzytu auk-whxzytu--uiccwe\">\n<p class=\"auk-whxzytu__vkanuqim\">A status with no precedent<\/p>\n<p>No other country currently holds an associate membership of the European Union, so the term would be new in EU practice.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Carney defined it this way: \u201cIt means the closest possible partnership without being a full member of the European Union, because Canada is not in Europe geographically and therefore cannot have accession.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Asked whether he was building a \u201cnew transatlantic bloc without the US\u201d, he said the aim was to diversify and deepen Canada\u2019s other partnerships, not to shut out its largest trading partner. \u201cIt\u2019s not against somebody. It\u2019s for. It\u2019s a positive act,\u201d he said, adding that the message was also meant for the Trump White House.<\/p>\n<h2>Building on existing ties, reaching into new fields<\/h2>\n<p>Carney pointed to cooperation already in place and to areas where the two sides could go further.<\/p>\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Already in place<\/th>\n<th>Could expand<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), which he called \u201cone of the most successful free trade agreements in the world\u201d<\/td>\n<td>Space technologies<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Research cooperation through Horizon Europe<\/td>\n<td>Artificial intelligence<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Student exchanges through Erasmus+<\/td>\n<td>Critical minerals<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>He added that Canada and the US are close partners and NATO allies with many opportunities to cooperate, but that in many cases cooperation between Canada and Europe would be much deeper than with the United States.<\/p>\n<h2>Dealing with Trump<\/h2>\n<p>Asked about the best approach to Donald Trump, Carney said it was to be direct and absolutely clear about bottom lines, to show respect, and to keep bringing the negotiations back to the core issues. He said the bonds between Canadians and Americans are strong and that big elements of them will be maintained regardless of who governs in either country.<\/p>\n<div class=\"auk-tinmpey-ubkgf\">\n<div class=\"auk-tinmpey\">\n<p><strong>The case for diversifying:<\/strong> Carney says tensions with Trump showed the need to seek Canada\u2019s other most natural partners around the world.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"auk-ubkgf\">\n<p><strong>The limit:<\/strong> he acknowledged that \u201cthe scale of the relationship with the United States\u201d would be \u201cvery hard to replace\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Pressed on whether the talks with Brussels could expose Canada to further tariffs or punitive measures, he answered: \u201cWe\u2019ve been living with this for some time.\u201d He said the US has offered many justifications for trade action against Canada, and that Canada considers all of them unjustified under its trade agreement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"media-credit auk-gogcn-ertkm\" data-provider=\"pexels\"><small>Photo: IslandHopper X \/ <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pexels.com\/photo\/low-angle-view-of-flags-16145781\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Pexels<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After talks in Montreal with Ursula von der Leyen and Antonio Costa, the Canadian prime minister told DW why Ottawa wants the closest possible EU partnership short of accession, and what he thinks it cannot replace.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":27436,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[1292,1296,1295,1120,1293,1294],"class_list":["post-27434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-canada","tag-ceta","tag-donald-trump","tag-european-union","tag-mark-carney","tag-ursula-von-der-leyen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/visegradpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/visegradpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/visegradpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visegradpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visegradpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27434"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/visegradpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27435,"href":"https:\/\/visegradpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27434\/revisions\/27435"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visegradpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/visegradpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visegradpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visegradpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}