MEP Javier Moreno Sánchez plays down ‘associate membership’ row ahead of EU-Canada summit
Javier Moreno Sánchez, the Spanish Socialists & Democrats lawmaker who chairs the European Parliament’s delegation to Canada, has dismissed the controversy over whether Canada should be called an “associate member” of the European Union. Speaking ahead of the EU-Canada summit that begins Thursday in Montréal, he said he does not care about the legal basis of the term, which European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen floated in September and which caught many by surprise. “No, to have made this announcement is positive. I prefer for Canada to be an associate member, but I don’t care about the legal basis; it can be de facto associate membership,” he said.
Moreno Sánchez noted that the concept of associate membership is not in the treaties, but argued that neither were the euro or the Schengen area before political will made them possible. He wants Canada’s relationship with the EU to be as strong and close as possible, comparable to that of Switzerland or Iceland. While there would be no Canadian members in the European Parliament or commissioners from Canada, the country could participate in all EU programmes. He cited Canada’s involvement in Erasmus+ and the Security Action for Europe (SAFE) as examples of deepening cooperation, along with significant collaboration on artificial intelligence.
A ‘de facto’ partnership
The MEP stressed that he favours a horizontal and holistic approach rather than a sector-by-sector one. “Now, everybody’s focusing on the legal basis of Ursula von der Leyen’s associate membership announcement, but frankly I don’t care,” he said. In a plenary session last week, he argued that Canada and the EU already share traditions, culture, language, values and principles, and in his view they are already associated. He pointed to a post by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez as an illustration of what associate membership could mean in practice.
Moreno Sánchez recounted an anecdote about the timing of the announcement: at 2pm after von der Leyen’s State of the Union speech, it was 8am in Ottawa, and a journalist there saw the post from the Spanish prime minister. For the Montréal summit, his priorities include a digital trade agreement to protect consumers and enterprises, and an agreement on critical raw materials because “Canada has everything” and Europe must not depend on China. He personally wants the EU to extend conventions and programmes like Erasmus+ to Canada in small steps, little by little.
Canada’s shift under Carney
Moreno Sánchez said that during a visit to Canada a few months into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he met with people, NGOs, and enterprise and development communities. In every meeting he was told that Canada wanted to rebuild Ukraine together with Europe once the war finished, and he was a little astonished. He attributed this to the 1.5 million Ukrainians in Canada and the country’s willingness to put money into EU programmes. “Thanks to Trump, we have Mark Carney as Canadian prime minister. It was a very good gift from him because Pierre Poilievre was the favourite two months before the elections,” he said. He added that when Trump announced “all these shitty things,” very proud Canadians decided to vote for Carney, and that the symbolic phrase “elbows up” captured the mood.
