Germany scrapped Canada’s EU ‘associate member’ offer
Ezra Levant says Canadians never voted on associate membership, and the term was dropped after Germany objected, not because Parliament weighed in.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa landed in Montreal this week for a two-day summit, with a signing set for Friday. On Thursday's Ezra Levant Show, Ezra said Canadians still haven't been told what they are getting.
Six weeks ago, he said, von der Leyen offered Canada something that had never existed: associate membership in the European Union. Mark Carney embraced it and flew to Strasbourg the next day to give a speech to the European Parliament.
Ezra noted this wasn't in the Liberal platform, a throne speech or any debate in the House of Commons. “There still hasn't been a vote,” he said. “But there has been a veto, and it came from Germany.”
Ezra cited Politico Europe, which he said reported that Germany led the push and that France and at least six other countries lined up behind it. According to Euronews, the draft declaration now replaces “associate membership” with a commitment to “ever closer association.” Carney told a reporter the “nomenclature doesn't matter.”
“Six weeks ago, it was the biggest thing he'd ever done. Now, it's just a nomenclature thing,” Ezra said. “The German government decided what words would appear in a document about Canada's future. Our parliament wasn't asked.”
Ezra pointed to the EU treaty's stated goal of “an ever closer union.” Under it, he said, Brussels handles trade policy, customs and fisheries, and a full member “can't sign its own trade deal, can't set its own tariffs.” Council decisions require 55 per cent of countries representing 65 per cent of the population.
Germany, he said, has about 83 million of the EU's 452 million people.
He said the closest model for a non-member is Norway, whose government's own 2012 report called its arrangement a “democratic deficit.” Switzerland walked away from a similar deal in 2021, he added. By contrast, he said, either country can leave the USMCA on six months' written notice. “The EU is not a trade deal between sovereign countries. It is a government,” Ezra said.
“So the pitch, I guess, is the Americans are bullies, so let's hand our trade policy over to Berlin,” he said.
Ezra also questioned what Canada would get in return. He said the IMF projects 1.1 per cent growth for the euro area this year, and that Germany managed two-tenths of one per cent last year. He cited former European Central Bank president Mario Draghi's warning that Europe faces a “slow agony,” and said none of the world's 10 most valuable companies is European.
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COMMENTS
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Bernhard Jatzeck commented 2026-10-30 17:00:49 -0400 FlagThe fact that Canadians never voted for this doesn’t matter to Carney as he treats Parliament with complete contempt.