The name is irrelevant, the politics aren’t

Each week, Euronews’ chief Europe editor Maria Tadeo debriefs the ins and outs of continental politics. This week, reporting from Strasbourg, she examines the EU’s pitch for associate membership for Canada.

Welcome back to this newsletter, written en route from Strasbourg to Brussels, after a week of parliamentary coverage. In case you missed it, Mark Carney stole the show and Canada is our new associate BFF, whatever that means.

It’s easy to be cynical about the Canadian Prime Minister, but anyone who makes an intellectual effort citing Goethe on a Thursday morning gets my attention amid the sea of poor orators that populate the annual State of the Union (the EU’s, to be clear).

Carney chose his references deliberately, reaching for Faust right off the bat. One can only hope the MEPs — including the gentleman who shouted “USA! USA!” as he took the stand — appreciated the reference. Goethe argued that freedom is neither a condition nor a possession: it must be conquered. Nor can it be taken for granted, as freedom is as fragile as it is precious.

Carney evoked that spirit from the get-go of his six-page address, taking the hemicycle on a journey through the forest of Ettersberg. Nur der verdient sich Freiheit wie das Leben, der täglich sie erobern muß (Only those who strive for freedom every day are deserving of it). Canada and the EU share that spirit, he told the European Parliament — and both are being tested on their ability to forge their own paths.

His pitch? A new alliance between two sovereign blocs that looks beyond zero-sum geopolitics and builds on their complementary strengths and dependencies. A single tree, he said, can fall in a storm; a forest will not. For Europe, as for Canada, the storm has three names: Trump, Xi, Putin.

Still, lumping them together would be intellectually lazy. The US doesn’t threaten Europe’s security architecture the way Russia does — NATO is still largely bankrolled by American taxpayers. Nor is China’s economic predation on the European industry the result of Trump’s economic agenda.

But together, they have upended the status quo on both sides of the Atlantic and left Europeans feeling defeated, orphaned from a political offer that stands up to bullies. Carney is now their patron saint and newfound maple hero.

You could say this is simply a rerun of speeches we’ve heard before.

Carney himself said as much in Davos at the start of the year, calling for an alliance of middle powers to stabilise a world increasingly governed by brute force. In 2023, cameras caught China’s Xi telling Putin that the world was witnessing changes not seen in a century. He was right. The question is whether nations can still decide their own paths, seal their own alliances, and resist the pull of the tide.

Carney is playing politics — that’s true. He owes his political success to Donald Trump: going elbows-up on the US, walking away from lopsided trade talks, and putting sovereignty above all else has resonated with Canadians — a country whose sole raison d’être is not being America.

Carney, a product of the establishment and elite education, would never have been elected had it not been for Trump’s provocations, and yet he is now the most popular Canadian PM; every dust-up adds points.

His political calculus is very different to that of the EU, which desperately sought to cool down tensions and had the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, inking a deal on American terms. And that stings. Large swathes of the European electorate are hungry for political courage — courage von der Leyen lacks, and would struggle to project even if she had it, since doing politics has never been her strength. In Carney, Europeans see an alternative.

Von der Leyen has amassed enormous power. She could have been a transformative Commission President; instead, she plays it safe. Let’s be honest: Carney saved her State of the Union address— without him, she would have had little new to say. Too afraid to raise the question of joint debt and European financing, her “independence” moment comes without financial muscle.

Mario Draghi put a number on the cost of an independent Europe: €800 billion a year. You cannot implement the Draghi report without addressing the elephant in the room — but she won’t touch it. You can argue her institutional neutrality doesn’t allow for it, but her peer Christine Lagarde has no problem sayingEurope should at least debate joint borrowing.

Plenty can be said about the tribulations and hurdles ahead for a transatlantic partnership meant to deepen trade, cultural, political and educational ties.

CETA is proof enough: the Canada-EU trade deal, still unratified in countries like France, was painful to negotiate and remains unpopular in sectors like agriculture (and farmers are untouchable in Europe).

Most MEPs we spoke to on the floor told us they didn’t quite understand what an associate member would look like, but welcomed the move. The head of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, went a step further, telling Euronews in an exclusive interview that Canada could pave the way for other countries “with so much in common,” like New Zealand and Australia. My colleague Vincenzo Genovese overheard a group of Renew MEPs debating the interview over lunch — that’s zeitgeist for you.

It’s tempting to write this pairing off as bluff — I mean, they can’t even agree on a name: an alliance for the future, or associate membership? But dismiss it at your peril, because Carney is right: at this point, the nomenclature is irrelevant.

What matters is the political signal, and it’s not a futile one — just ask the US president, who has already threatened tariffs if the two turn hostile to American interests. As you know, in MAGA world, you either align or you get punished. And yes, the US already has a deal in place with the EU which cut tariffs on American products.

Before I go, I want to thank our team of reporters, correspondents, producers and cameramen for two marathon days in which Euronews brought you 16 interviews, an exclusive sit-down with the Parliament’s President, the Commissioners that mattered on the day, and non-stop coverage. It’s long hours and it’s not easy. I had cold chicken nuggets for dinner each night, and believe me, you don’t want that.

But we take pride in what we do, and Euronews is Europe’s newsroom — time to consider an antenna in Ottawa.

Thank you for readingOff The Recordmake sure to subscribehere.Before you go,Europe Today, Euronews’ flagship morning show, is live weekdays at 8am CET.

Source: www.euronews.com