Fumbling towards Ecstasy? Canada as an associate member of the EU

Professor Steve Peers, Law School, Royal Holloway, University of London Photo credit: Martin St-Amant, via Wikipedia Commons “Living next to [the United States] is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt.” - Pierre Trudeau, former Prime Minister of Canada Introduction Can Canada become an ‘associate member’ of the EU? What might that mean, and how might a process to this end work? There are few details yet, but this blog post explores the broad parameters of the law and politics of such a possibility. The Legal Framework Canada is not seeking to be a Member State of the EU – a process governed by Article 49 TEU. Nor is it seeking to sign an association agreement – as referred to in Article 217 TFEU. Rather the status under discussion is that of ‘associate member’ – a concept not referred to in the EU Treaties. However, the absence of an explicit reference to…