World

EU backs away from offer to Canada to start ‘associate member’ talks

A draft of a joint statement to be issued after the end of the summit, which runs Thursday and Friday, showed a watered-down version offering “an ever closer association of Canada to the EU, short of full membership itself”.

✦ Extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting•From 2 sources•1 min read•Updated October 29, 2026, 8:31 AM UTC

German Chancellor Merz and other EU leaders reportedly pushed for the terms to be removed from the draft statement.

How this summary was made: extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting. It is drawn only from the reporting of the sources listed below — read the originals for full detail. How we summarize →

Advertisement

Every article behind this summary — 2 articles from 2 outlets