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Expectations are high after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday offered to create a tailor-made status of “associate EU membership” for Canada, and pitched closer collaboration on tech, energy and defence (if you missed von der Leyen’s landmark annual speech, here are our five takeaways).
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Trump strikes back: The announcement has already created ripples across the Atlantic, with US President Donald Trump overnight describing the invite as “hostile” and “laughable”, threatening “very serious tariffs” or to even “stop trading with Europe”.
It’s a nightmare scenario for Brussels. The bloc has been treading carefully in its rapprochement with Ottawa, refraining from taking sides or intervening as a negotiator in the escalating trade spat between the North American neighbours.
Carney’s dash to the UK: Carney returned to Strasbourg late last night after a quick dash to the north of England where he met UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham in Manchester. Both leaders held bilateral talks at the home of Everton football club, which they both support.
Burnham and Carney discussed defence cooperation, with Canada formally applying to join the British-led Joint Expeditionary Force, a UK-led northern European military coalition.
Questions linger over special status: Meanwhile here in Strasbourg, questions are mounting over what “associate membership” – a status that does not yet exist – would mean in practice. Von der Leyen’s announcement is widely understood to be an aspirational political signal, but as the Irish deputy prime minister said in Strasbourg yesterday, “the devil is always in the detail”.
Several third countries are “associated” with the EU through association agreements, from the Western Balkans to Eastern Europe and the Middle East. But no country so far is an “associated member”, a definition that seems to align with Carney’s pitch for a “unique alliance” with the bloc.
Canada’s status could entail a preferential trade relationship, building on the EU-Canada trade deal known as CETA, institutional cooperation and a close defence partnership. Talks on joining EU programmes such as Erasmus+ and Horizon Europe are also ongoing, as my colleague Luca Bertuzzi reports.
The picture could come clearer after an EU-Canada summit in Montreal at the end of October, when Brussels and Ottawa are expected to put some meat on the bones. EU leaders are also expected to gather for a summit in Brussels in mid-October.
More clues could also come from Carney’s speech in the hemicycle today and from the following press conference in Strasbourg. Meanwhile, the Canadian Prime Minister met separately on Wednesday with von der Leyen and Parliament President Roberta Metsola, who gave him a steel combat helmet used by Canadian forces in France during the Second World War.
“We have so much in common,” Metsola told our EU Editor Maria Tadeo in an interview, adding that this will “absolutely” open the door for more countries to seek associate status.
“I think in the big picture (…) friends matter, and if we can do more things with our friends, then let’s do them,” Metsola said. Watch.
Lasting love: The rapprochement between Brussels and Ottawa is not just a “short-term honeymoon”, as Socialist MEP Tobias Cremer, author of a parliament report on EU-Canada cooperation, put it during a dinner with reporters in Strasbourg.
There’s no love lost, however, among parliament’s political groups over the crisis in Ceuta.
Ceuta crisis divides chamber: After a heated debate on Tuesday, the chamber is set to vote today on a resolution “on the recent hybrid attacks and instrumentalisation of migrants”, following the massive influx of 80,000 irregular migrants into the Spanish exclave last July.
Each political family put forward a different version of the text, with right-wing parties attacking the Spanish government and left-wing forces denouncing the exploitation of the crisis by the far right. The deadlock could produce the unusual situation of no resolution being adopted at all.
After all, in the European Parliament, every word matters — and political battles are not confined to the chamber.
Even an exhibition in the corridors has become a political flashpoint. “Just EUman”, a display currently on show and promoted by a conservative MEP with a pro-life association, features pictures of a fetus developing during pregnancy.
The Socialists and Democrats, the Left and the Greens/EFA have called on President Metsola to withdraw it, as they consider it to be “part of a broader anti-choice campaign”, with a “clear attempt to question access to abortion, even if this is not explicitly stated”.
Inside von der Leyen’s pitch for a new EU security architecture
A new European Security Council, an emergency protocol and a new strategic enabler initiative: three key pillars of a new European security strategy pitched by Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday, and which my colleagues Angela Skujins and Luca Bertuzzi break down for you in this must-read piece.
Among the most significant proposals is a new security-focused political format dubbed the European Security Council, a special configuration of the EU leaders’ summit that will include partners such as Ukraine, the United Kingdom, Norway and Canada.
Von der Leyen also called for the EU’s own version of NATO’s Article 4 – which allows members to formally request emergency consultations when they believe their security is under threat – as hybrid threats across Europe grow increasingly kinetic.
Oana Lungescu, NATO’s former spokesperson, told Angela and Luca that while it’s welcome that the Commission President wants closer EU-NATO cooperation, it’s hard to see how this would actually deter Russia. “Protocols and playbooks already exist in both organisations,” she said.
Finally, von der Leyen announced a new instrument to scale up Europe’s so-called “strategic enablers” – which include satellites, airlift, refuelling and intelligence capabilities that allow military forces to operate effectively – amid a retreat in US military assets in Europe.
How exactly the new instrument will close this gap remains unclear, as Brussels tries to work out how to incentivise national investment in the area.
Read the full article.
More from our newsrooms
How did Greece end up borrowing more cheaply than France? Greece now pays less than France to borrow despite carrying more debt. Petro Cingai explains how Athens rebuilt market trust while Paris lost fiscal credibility.
Kosovo’s former President Thaçi convicted of war crimes at Hague court. Hashim Thaçi, who served as both president and prime minister, was found guilty of murder, torture, cruel treatment and arbitrary detention by the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, as tens of thousands who had gathered in Prishtina expecting his acquittal watched proceedings on a livestream. Aleksandar Brezar has the details.
Mbappé, Vinícius and Konaté criticised for hiding Ceuta support message. The La Liga president Javier Tebas has criticised three Real Madrid players, including Kylian Mbappé, for not wearing a T-shirt properly in support of the people of Ceuta, a Spanish autonomous city in North Africa that has been hit by a migration crisis. Cristian Caraballo has more.
We’re also keeping an eye on
- European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and vice-president for Technological Sovereignty Henna Virkkunen present the EU Kids Act at 10.00 CET in Strasbourg. Here’s the leak.
- The European Parliament’s plenary session closes. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to address the chamber at 11.30 CET.
That’s it for today. Vincenzo Genovese, Luca Bertuzzi and Angela Skujins contributed to this newsletter.
Read the full article here
