‘Associate’ or ‘ever-closer association’? Semantics aside, what does that leave the EU-Canada love-in?

“Associate membership” is out and “ever closer association” back in. The offer of the first phrase was made to Canada a month ago by EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen. The phraseology, made during von der Leyen’s State of the Union speech, surprised many EU diplomats who claimed that they had not been consulted. It was also never clear precisely what this would mean. The idea of Canada having representatives or observer status in the EU institutions always sounded fanciful. Besides, there is no mention of ‘associate membership’ in the EU treaties, and this uncertainty appears to have persuaded Germany to demand that it be dropped ahead of Thursday and Friday’s (29-30 October) EU-Canada summit. The draft communique circulated ahead of the summit talks of “work to define by the 2027 EU-Canada summit the concept of an ever closer association of Canada to the EU, short of full membership itself.” Von der Leyen appeared not to have read the memo. Officials would "start discussing how to make Canada the first associate member of the EU," she said on arrival in Montreal, adding that “our ambition is to build the closest partnership we have ever had with a non-European country". Yet this is a dispute over language rather than substance. The EU and Mark Carney’s Canada see each other as their closest ally. Both have been repeatedly threatened with hefty trade tariffs by Donald Trump’s White House and the consequences of Trump’s foreign policy adventures in the Middle East and the Arctic. Carney’s remarks at the World Economic Forum in January that ‘middle’ powers should club together to avoid being squeezed between China and the US were aimed at the EU. Commission officials may blench at the comparison, but the EU is a collection of middle ranking and small states. And it is yet to act like a world power on the political stage.