Germany leads eight EU states in rejecting 'associate membership' label for Canada

Germany, France and at least six other EU member states are pushing to remove the phrase "associate membership" from the joint declaration being drafted ahead of the EU-Canada summit in Montreal on 29-30 October, six diplomats involved in the negotiations said.

The label was first proposed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in her State of the Union speech five weeks ago — without prior consultation with national governments, four of the diplomats said. The objections centre on the wording itself, not the goal of closer ties.

"We've definitely put the cart before the horse," one diplomat said. "We are announcing something and then figuring out how to flesh it out."

Germany is pushing hardest for the term's removal. France, Italy and Belgium are among those expressing scepticism. The central concern is that the EU announced a relationship label before agreeing what it would mean in practice.

Bernd Lange, chair of the European Parliament's trade committee, said he too would avoid the phrase, warning it creates confusion with other EU partnership formats such as association agreements.

A European Commission official said the institution would engage with sceptical capitals and work toward acceptable language, adding that doubts stem from a lack of understanding of what the proposal means in concrete terms. "What matters is what we do, not what we call it," the official said.

Canada cannot become a formal EU member under the bloc's founding treaties, which limit membership geographically to European states.