An invitation to deepen the relationship has become a dispute over what to call it
Great.
Far right Germany and oligarch controlled France cock blocked us.
While the article covers things well and has good analysis, but it also doesn’t give the whole picture.
The EU Council is governed by laws and is a form of federalized government for the EU. So having legal definitions is a big requirement. The same with Canada’s federal government, we would not want it putting out laws that are not clearly defined.
Ukraine makes the argument particularly entertaining. Friedrich Merz previously proposed associate membership as a way to bring Ukraine closer to the EU while it pursued full membership.
It makes sense to give Ukraine associate membership because Ukraine has a pathway to becoming an EU member. This sets the precedence that Associate Membership is for EU membership (or at least the premise of why it exists).
Canada, on the other hand, does not have a pathway to membership as much as we’d like it to be true. One of the main rules of EU membership is that the country is part of Europe. Though to be fair, it’s also a political designation (like recognizing that Georgia and Armenia are part of Europe).
So giving Canada an associate membership that is supposed to be a pathway to EU membership is against the governing rules of the EU commission.
Then comes the fear of precedent. Other countries might want a similar arrangement.
That’s very true and not wrong. Which other countries would want associate membership and where does it stop? What does associate membership become?
DW does a decent summary because they’re using quotes from the member states
https://www.dw.com/en/canada-eu-mark-carney-ursula-von-der-leyen-associate-membership/a-79791601
So sorry am I not getting my EU working permit tomorrow? Damnit I’ll have to unpack.
I have no intention of pretending Canada is a sanctuary from bureaucracy. We have considerable domestic expertise in making a straightforward task take longer than a human being can reasonably remain interested.
Canadian politics in a nutshell.
“Canada want’s to become more like the EU.”
*Look inside
Institutional racism against Indigenous people
Breakdown of national environmental protections
Selling weapons to Israel
Training Israeli troops
Selling weapons to the Saudis
Helping the US murder fishing crews
It was nice to think of, and I was excited… but let’s not pretend we’re a global leader of freedom and democracy. At least, not anymore.
While all those points are fair the real reason is major players in Europe do not want to water down EU laws and associate membership implied canada would get some of the benefits without the legal obligations which EU fairly is realizing wont work. Canada would need to pursue a Norway- or Switzerland- like deal that gives up on some sovereignty but canadians are not too warm to that idea either. In the end it will probably just mean more trade agreements and not much more.
When Trump signs CUSMA, all this EU talk will dissappear.
US signatures are signed in pencil as was fairly put by Carney, and noticed by the world.
Are you forgetting he signed the last one?
No one ever defined what an associate member is, so a nothingburger from the start. The freak out the Trump regime was telling and probably the whole point. Where are the puppet strings?
nothingburger
Sorry, stopped reading after this.
All this hoopla over associate membership is consistent with dumb European governance that I don’t want to live with. Good friends? Yes. Wanting to share a roof? No. This has just been a bunch of pointless nonsense distracting from the things that actually matter and the EU leaders come across like used car salespeople in how hard they’ve been pitching this.
Disappointing, but not the end of the world. This feels like typical bureaucracy shit and not a complete door slam to the face. I think the spirit of wanting closer association is still there, and who knows where it could go.
