On Sunday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters Canada was seeking a "unique alliance" with the EU.
The report indicates that “Wouldn’t it be lovely if Canada was the 28th state of the European Union rather than the 51st state of the United States?” asked Finland’s President Alexander Stubb this summer.
It further notes that the question was rather tongue-in-cheek. US President Donald Trump, who is currently locked in an escalating tariff tussle with Ottawa, has, on a number of occasions, declared his ambition to make Canada the 51st American state – causing deep offence amongst many Canadians.
Finland is one of the EU’s 27 member states and a close ally of Canada as a fellow Arctic nation. Teasing tones aside, President Stubb put his finger squarely on the pulse of deepening EU-Canadian relations. “Canada is more Europe-minded than most Europeans!” is a smiling retort you often hear in Brussels at the moment.
On Sunday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters Canada was seeking a “unique alliance” with the EU.
The catalyst for this very public, ardent new love-in is Donald Trump. Just the other day, the US president posted a map of North America on his Truth Social site, including Canada and Greenland – a territory that’s part of EU country Denmark – all overlaid with the US flag.
Trade negotiations between the US and Canada broke down late last month. European countries, which have been hit by their own Trump tariffs, have privately watched the spat play out with a mixture of interest and, for many, admiration.
While the EU, lead by the European Commission, simply accepted new blanket Trump tariffs without fighting back, Carney has prominently stood up to the US president, swiftly imposing counter-tariffs on the United States.
When it comes to courting the EU, Canada appears to some to be even keener than one of the bloc’s closest neighbours.
“Canada right now seems more interested than the UK to get as close to Brussels as possible, as a non member state” says Mark Lowen, director of the European Council of Foreign Relations think tank. “It’s remarkable.”
Canada, but not the UK, successfully joined the European Union’s Security Action for Europe (SAFE) defence fund earlier this year. The UK remained on the sidelines following a row over costs and political tensions. A summit designed to reset and improve EU-UK relations has just been delayed – again – over cross-Channel differences.
By contrast this week, Carney is invited as a special guest to the European Commission President’s annual State of the Union address in Strasbourg, France on Wednesday. Carney will hold a speech in the European Parliament there on Thursday, a day after President von der Leyen outlines the EU’s political and policy priorities.
Officials on both sides insist this is more than just “blah blah politics”, as one EU diplomat put it to me. He was speaking on condition of anonymity so as to be able to discuss the subject freely. Carney and von der Leyen are both expected to mention plans to forge closer ties. “As close as you can get without (Canada) actually becoming an EU member,” the diplomat told me.
In the corridors of Brussels, there’s whispered talk of constructing a “special association agreement” with Canada.
The unofficial aim for both sides, I’m told, is to reduce reliance on Washington in several key areas:
