Friends with benefits: EU associate membership explained

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen surprised Brussels, and the world, during her 2026 State of the Union address by suggesting she wants to see Canada as an associate member of the EU. European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, a Maltese member of von der Leyen’s center-right party, jumped on the idea. She suggested that Australia and New Zealand — which, like Malta and Canada, are Commonwealth countries — could also be candidates for the yet-to-be-defined category of EU associate membership. While potentially attractive, the idea is neither simple nor well understood outside of EU policy circles. For now, it’s a political slogan only. The closest existing model is the European Economic Area,...

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