In September 2026, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed making Canada the EU’s first “associate member”. The status does not currently exist and would not amount to full membership. Creating it would require agreement among all 27 EU states and possibly treaty changes. Canada would not automatically enter the Single Market or gain free-movement rights.
The proposal builds upon an already substantial relationship. CETA has removed almost all tariffs between Canada and the EU, although ten EU states have not completed ratification. Canada also participates in Horizon Europe and European defence procurement. Associate membership could deepen cooperation in artificial intelligence, digital trade, manufacturing, energy, defence and critical minerals.
Canadian businesses might gain better access to European research funding, public contracts and supply chains. Europe would gain a dependable source of energy and rare-earth minerals critical to modern technology and manufacturing, reducing its reliance on Russia and China. Greater access would probably require Canadian alignment with EU regulations, however. Canada might therefore follow rules which it had little role in writing, limiting its regulatory sovereignty.
The proposal represents selective globalisation. Earlier globalisation emphasised broad liberalisation and increasingly open world markets. Canada is instead building several strategic relationships so that it is not excessively dependent on one state. More than three-quarters of Canadian exports still go to the USA, but Donald Trump’s tariffs and threats have exposed the leverage created by that dependence. Canada is not retreating from international trade or abandoning the American market. It is developing European and Asian alternatives. This is globalisation organised around resilience and strategic choice rather than maximum economic efficiency.
The proposal also stretches the conventional meaning of regionalism. Canada is geographically North American but could become closely associated with a European supranational organisation. The EU would operate as the centre of a wider strategic network, not simply a closed geographical bloc. Canada would remain interdependent, but its dependence would be distributed across several centres of economic power.