EU and Canada seek closer ties: Will Canada become the EU's first associate member?

Home Shows Talking Europe To display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement. One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading. To watch this content, you may need to disable it on this site. Cover image: TALKING EUROPE © FRANCE 24 12:34 Issued on: 16/10/2026 - 14:04Modified: 16/10/2026 - 14:05 From the show As the international context becomes more challenging for the European Union, the bloc is looking to boost its ties with like-minded allies. Canada is part of that architecture that the EU says it wants to build. The big news of EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's State of the Union speech in September was that Canada could become an associate member – an arrangement that does not exist for the EU's partners at the moment. The EU-Canada summit, set to take place at the end of October in Montreal, might provide some clues as to what this enhanced relationship will look like. We delve into the topic with two MEPs. Programme prepared by Oihana Almandoz, Isabelle Romero and Perrine Desplats EUROPE © FRANCE 24