EU drops ‘associate membership’ label for Canada ahead of Montreal summit

The EU has dropped “associate membership” from its joint declaration with Canada, due to be adopted at Thursday and Friday's EU-Canada summit in Montreal, replacing it with “ever closer association” after Germany, France, Italy and Greece objected to the undefined term. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had floated associate membership in her State of the Union address, but Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said the wording “was for the EU to settle” and that he preferred the phrase “alliance for the future”.

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