European Union member states have blocked a proposal by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to grant Canada a special status as an “associate member” of the bloc.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and several other EU leaders pushed to remove the term from a draft declaration ahead of a two-day EU-Canada summit beginning Thursday in Montreal, according to diplomats cited by the dpa and AFP news agencies.
Instead, the revised document calls for a plan to establish “closer ties” between
Really, it’s not that big a deal, it was kind of a silly semantics game to call it “Associate Membership” anyway. It was more about headlines provoking the Coppertone Fascist. That a trade deal is cut is the important part.