AMID US president Donald Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Sigmar Gabriel, former German vice chancellor and foreign minister, made a curious suggestion in an interview with German media outlet The Pioneer: invite Canada into the European Union. Soon after, Guy Verhofstadt, former prime minister of Belgium, addressed Canada on X to say that “[t]here is no reason why EU membership should be off the table.” The thought of this North Atlantic alliance excited some Canadians and Europeans—one YouTube video even theorized how “CANEU” (read: canoe) would be a “global superpower.”
To learn more about what the possibilities are for Canada and the EU, I spoke with Mark Camilleri, president and CEO of the Canada EU Trade and Investment Association—CEUTIA—based in Brussels.
“In terms of trade, what similarities do Canada and the EU share?”
There’s a lot of complementarities when you go across sectors. Take mining, for example. Canada has an abundance of natural resources that the EU doesn’t have, but Europe creates and makes a lot of industrial equipment that helps extract those resources. Europe has a certain need for these resources as part of their own economic security.
If you take a look at the fertilizer that Canada produces, Europe needs it to support their agricultural sector. Another example is nuclear energy. Nuclear is going through a renaissance at the moment, and Canada can basically cover the full supply chain from mining uranium to building nuclear reactors.
Canada shares a common land border with Denmark.
They could be welcomed into the EU in a heartbeat.
Assuming they completely changed their food and product regulations and adapted everything from agricultural and animal husbandry to building codes to match the EU overnight.
Otherwise it’s more of a decades long process.
Even CETA is still not ratified because Canadian ranchers and farmers still insist on using growth hormones and have trouble dealing with European GMO tracking and labelling.
Those ranchers and farmers might change their tune pretty quick if their ability to sell product hinges on it.
Yeah, there’s reason to think they’d accept Canada, and they definitely could, but it’s not like an on-switch thing.
Applying for membership is basically the last step in a long series of reforms which we could be doing either way.
Yet as a Canadian I will welcome agricultural rules harmonization with EU. Give a five year frame to reach 70 % and 10 years to reach above 95 %. Present the thing to Canadian as a matter of sovereignty while reminding our farmers that the current buy Canadian frenzy is a net positive for them if they see it under the “opportunity” light.
Invite Canada as an “observer” at the EU table for as long as these discussions are successful, it will mess with Trump gang.
Most of Canada’s beef cattle come from Alberta so passing CETA should soon be a breeze – just let Alberta know that their market will only be Canada (if they use growth hormone) or the world (if they don’t).
If they’re smart they’ll choose right.
Hmmmmmmmmmm
Yeah, even-handed pragmatism not really the vibe with cattle farmers here.
Good thing it’s an Ottawa decision.
Uncontested and ungaurded as well.
The liquor bottles and flags make good sentries.
We actually cleaned up after ourselves on Hans Island.
Bottles and flags were taken back to the ship. There was a flag pole and a box to put the bottle in
The CO got to add the bottle to his collection and the flag was turned over to command when we got home IIRC.
His collection? Bah. He should’ve shared it! ;)
Naval tradition gifts a lot of bottles between ships. The CO was the recipient, though if you had a decent one, they would share some of their stash during certain events. Mostly it was a diplomatic things with foreign dignitaries.