STRASBOURG, France — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Thursday embraced the prospect of Canada becoming the European Union's first associate member, telling the European Parliament that closer ties with Europe would protect Canadian markets and sovereignty from outside pressure. The welcome for the Canada EU associate membership proposal in Strasbourg was electric: lawmakers crowded the chamber to shake his hand, one wore a Canadian hockey jersey, and Carney received a standing ovation after his speech, according to The Associated Press.

The proposal came from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who floated the idea in her annual state-of-the-union address the day before. She called for taking the EU-Canada relationship to the highest possible level and sketched an “Alliance for the Future” built around a shared prosperity and economic-security space. Carney, seated in the front row, nodded and rose to embrace her as the chamber applauded, the AP reported.

What associate membership would mean

The status does not exist in EU treaties and would have to be invented from scratch. Von der Leyen's pitch goes far beyond the two sides' 2016 trade pact, CETA, which still has not been ratified by several EU states, including France. Carney stressed that he was not seeking full EU membership but a deeper partnership across trade, defense, critical minerals, artificial intelligence, energy, space, research and financial services, per The Times.

Carney framed the move as a bid for resilience rather than power. The democratic world is being battered by what he called a ferocious storm, and middle powers need to band together so that no outside force can control open markets, impair sovereignty, or threaten territorial integrity. Sovereignty, he told lawmakers, now depends on secure access to AI, semiconductors, critical minerals, payment systems, clean energy, vaccines and space-based communications.

Canada has already moved first on defense. This year it became the first non-European country to join the EU's 150-billion-euro SAFE defense procurement program, giving Canadian firms access to joint weapons buying as Europe ramps up military spending. Ottawa and Brussels have also discussed closer cooperation on energy, critical minerals, AI and digital trade, the AP reported.

The next milestone is a Canada-EU summit in Montreal on October 29-30, where the two sides are expected to flesh out the new relationship. Canada should also be invited into the EU's Erasmus student-exchange program, an initial agreement on the table in Montreal. Carney said any enhanced partnership would be debated in Canada's Parliament and put to a final vote.

Trump pushes back

The shadow of Washington hung over the whole event. The tariff threats came days before Trump's planned September 24 summit with Xi Jinping, where tariffs are also on the table. President Donald Trump has slapped Canada with steep tariffs after trade talks broke down, repeatedly talked about making Canada the 51st state, and dismissed von der Leyen's proposal as “laughable,” suggesting the arrangement could be treated as a hostile act and warning of heavy new tariffs on Europe, according to both outlets. Canada sends roughly 70 percent of its exports to the United States, making it extremely exposed to tariff pressure, while Europe chose to shelve retaliation and accept U.S. tariffs of up to 15 percent on most of its exports.

Carney implicitly rejected the threats from the podium in Strasbourg. He said Canadians were united against outside attempts to dictate the country's language, culture, or choice of international partners. Ottawa has retaliated with dollar-for-dollar tariffs of its own rather than bend to demands Carney says threaten sovereignty. The Canada-EU outreach, with its emphasis on Arctic cooperation and critical minerals, also sits alongside Washington's own scramble for Arctic leverage, including the recent U.S. military deal with Greenland.

A long road ahead

For all the applause, associate membership faces steep hurdles. The status has no legal basis in EU treaties, would require endorsement from all 27 member states, and EU capitals had not even been briefed on von der Leyen's proposal before she announced it. One EU diplomat called the idea quite unrealistic but a useful symbol, The Times reported. Britain, still working to rebuild ties with the bloc after Brexit, would likely bristle at an arrangement that could overtake London's own efforts, diplomats said.

Domestic critics have warned that Canada should not trade dependence on Washington for dependence on Brussels, with opponents cautioning against becoming the EU's 28th member. Carney, a former governor of the Bank of England, has answered that concern by talking more about alliance than about status: the point, he has repeatedly argued, is resilience so that no single dominant partner can dictate terms.

Analysts say the politics of the moment made the pitch hard to refuse. Political scientist Daniel Béland of McGill University said the policies of the Trump administration are pushing both Canada and the EU to imagine a world without strong U.S. leadership and to act accordingly, the AP reported. Nelson Wiseman, a professor emeritus at the University of Toronto, said Europe has long seen Canada as the country that understands the United States best, and that Carney's refusal to simply fold in the face of tariff threats has captured European attention.

Whether the Canada EU associate membership plan becomes a durable treaty arrangement is the open question. The Montreal summit in late October will show how much of the associate-membership symbolism Brussels and Ottawa are willing to turn into a binding, funded partnership.