Canada has been invited to become the EU’s first “associate member” as Prime Minister Mark Carney attended Ursula von der Leyen’s State of the Union address yesterday.

She told assembled members in Strasbourg that “old assumptions and relationships have frayed” and the EU is now facing an “openly hostile world.”

“Europe and Canada believe in democracy. That power does not belong to the strongest, or richest and loudest, but to all of us.”

She addressed the Prime Minister – whom she invited to attend – as “dear Mark,” saying that Canada and the EU “share one ocean, one set of values” and “one way of seeing the world,” and they will build on their shared future as well.

Ursula von der Leyen’s remarks about Canada during her State of the Union address to EU members:

Honourable Members,

These partnerships are a strategic choice for Europe. But they also respond to the fracture in the international rules-based system.

For some, the answer is to go it alone. But this is not an option for us. Europe will always lead when it comes to defending the rules-based system. But we can no longer rely on it as the only way to secure our interests. Or assume that its rules will shelter us from the complex threats that we face.

In this new world, we must urgently reimagine our partnerships. And build global coalitions for our resilience and democracies.

And here too only Europe – with its size and power – can take the lead.

And this is why I have invited Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada to be here today.

Mark, your presence here is a symbol of the enduring friendship between our people. Our cultural, historical and personal links run deep within the fabric of our societies.

And thanks to CETA, our trade in goods has grown by 75 % in less than a decade.

This shows the power of our trade agreements. We see the world with the same eyes: from AI to climate change, from the Arctic to geopolitics. And we have stood together: on Ukraine, on defence, on raw materials and on supply chains.

But above all, dear Mark, Europe and Canada believe in democracy.

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.

So, we are joining forces voluntarily. We will move from CETA to an Alliance for the Future to create a common prosperity and economic security space. We will work on intelligent manufacturing. We will create a tech alliance. We will integrate defence industrial bases. We will make the Arctic a flagship joint project. We will work on energy, critical minerals and batteries. On AI, quantum, cyber and economic security.

This is a partnership not against anyone else, but for our common strength.

In short, we want to bring the relationship with Canada to the highest level possible.

Dear Mark,

I said we must urgently reimagine our partnerships. So, I would like to work with you on opening the door for Canada to be the first associate member of the EU.

We share one ocean, one set of values, one way of seeing the world. And we will now build our shared future as well – thank you for being here.