European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says today’s Canada-EU Summit in Montreal will launch talks about Canada becoming the European Union’s first “associate member.”
Von der Leyen told a crowd gathered at an event hosted by the C.D. Howe Institute in Montreal that the partnership makes sense because Canada and the European Union are “two complementary systems.”
“Of course, Canada cannot become a full-fledged member of the European Union because of geography,” she said during her Oct. 29 speech ahead of the two-day Canada-EU Summit. “But we both want to bring our relationship to the highest level possible, and this is why we are discussing the idea of Canada becoming the first associate member of the European Union.”…