EU chief Ursula von der Leyen says she wants Canada to become the bloc’s 1st associate member

She cast that closer relationship as rooted not just in trade but in shared democratic values.

“Above all, dear Mark, Europe and Canada believe in democracy,” von der Leyen said to Carney, who sat in the front row to her left.

“We believe that power does not belong to the strongest, the richest or the loudest, but to all of us. That democracies have the freedom to choose with whom to work.”

Von der Leyen said the expanded partnership would cover advanced manufacturing, technology, defense production, the Arctic, energy, critical minerals, batteries, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, cybersecurity and economic security.

“This is a partnership not against anyone else, but for our common strength,” she said. “In short, we want to bring the relationship with Canada to the highest level possible.”

Canada this year became the first non-European country to join the EU’s 150-billion-euro ($173-billion) SAFE defense program, giving Canadian companies access to joint procurement.

Carney said Tuesday that economic integration, once viewed largely as an asset, is increasingly “being used as a weapon by certain countries.”

Canada has retaliated against U.S. tariffs and rejected trade terms Carney says would weaken its sovereignty.

The EU has taken a different course with Washington, reaching a trade agreement that set a 15% U.S. tariff ceiling on the vast majority of EU exports while Europe eliminated tariffs on U.S. industrial goods.

That contrast has loomed over Carney’s push for closer European ties. In a closely watched speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, he urged middle powers to work together to increase their leverage in an era of great-power rivalry.

“When we only negotiate bilaterally with a hegemon, we negotiate from weakness. We accept what is offered,” Carney said.

“This is not sovereignty,” he said. “It is the performance of sovereignty while accepting subordination.”

Carney’s Davos speech on middle powers in January drew a personal rebuke from Trump, and von der Leyen’s overture to America’s neighbor could raise the temperature again.

In an emailed statement Wednesday, Iratxe García Pérez, president of the Socialists & Democrats group in the European Parliament, praised Carney for “great courage confronting Donald Trump” and said allies were needed to defend “sovereignty, solidarity and international law.”

Rob Gillies, The Associated Press

by The Canadian Press

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen says she wants Canada to become the bloc’s 1st associate member

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