In deal with to European parliament, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney listed areas the place he needs to spice up cooperation.
Printed On 17 Sep 2026
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has welcomed the prospect of his nation changing into the European Union’s first affiliate member, saying such an alliance is aimed to be a “beacon for democracies” and to not “dominate others”.
Talking within the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Carney stated Canada “welcomes” von der Leyen’s ambition to make the nation an associate member.
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“We aren’t fair-weather allies. We don’t pursue zero-sum offers. We maintain frequent values for which we’ve all the time fought, and in whose defence we should all the time stay vigilant,” Carney stated to applause from European lawmakers.
“Canada and Europe are every robust. Europe and Canada are stronger collectively.”
“I’m not proposing a 3rd bloc with a purpose to develop into a great-power rival – solely with higher manners,” he continued. “We don’t search energy to dominate others. Quite the opposite, we’re pursuing resilience in order that nobody can management our open markets, impair our sovereignty, threaten our territorial integrity, or undermine our freedoms, our democracies, our rule of regulation.”
Carney listed a slew of areas the place he needed to ramp up cooperation.
“Canada and Europe ought to safe our strategic autonomy via deep cooperation within the full vary of strategic capabilities, together with important minerals, defence industrial capability, AI and compute, vitality safety, house and funds.”
He additionally stated the EU and Canada ought to transfer in the direction of “seamless digital commerce” and permit younger individuals from either side to work and research on both aspect of the Atlantic.
The EU and Canada have been going through stiff rivalry and stress from Trump’s administration on commerce, amongst different issues, and from an more and more assertive China.
Trump threatened late on Wednesday to take motion towards the EU if it strikes ahead with von der Leyen’s proposal of affiliate membership for Canada.
“In the event that they do this, if I believe it’s in any respect a hostile act, I’ll put very critical tariffs or cease buying and selling with Europe on many issues,” Trump informed reporters, calling the proposal “laughable”.
“If it’s an excellent intention, that’s wonderful. If it’s a foul intention, we’ll put very heavy tariffs on Europe,” he added.
The European Fee (EC) stated von der Leyen’s proposal – which is but to be fleshed out and can have to be accredited by EU member states to go ahead – was not a hostile act.
“As our President (von der Leyen) made clear yesterday, the proposed strengthening of our partnership with Canada just isn’t towards anybody else, however for our frequent energy,” stated Olof Gill, an EC spokesperson.
