{"id":30416,"date":"2026-05-03T20:36:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T20:36:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/30416\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T20:36:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T20:36:22","slug":"alarm-bells-for-trump-as-mark-carney-joins-european-summit-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/30416\/","title":{"rendered":"Alarm bells for Trump as Mark Carney joins European summit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Officials in Brussels often joke about Canada joining the EU<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Some European leaders, including Alexander Stubb, the Finnish president, have even started to entertain the idea.<\/p>\n

It remains a pipe dream for now \u2013 but Mark Carney<\/a> will at least get to play the part of a European leader in Yerevan on Monday.<\/p>\n

The Canadian prime minister will become the first leader of a non-European state to join a summit of the European Political Community.<\/p>\n

\"Mark<\/p>\n

Mark Carney landed in Yerevan, Armenia, on Sunday and had a meeting with Roberta Metsola, the president of the European Parliament – Sean Kilpatrick\/The Canadian Press via AP<\/p>\n

The gathering of some 45 regional leaders was initially conceived by Emmanuel Macron<\/a> as a response to Vladimir Putin\u2019s invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

The French president believed such a summit, of which Monday\u2019s will be the eighth, was also needed as a means for an independent Europe to project its power.<\/a><\/p>\n

This notion was often laughed at \u2013 until Donald Trump re-entered the White House. In the last 15 months, the US president has imposed steep trade tariffs on European countries and on Canada.<\/p>\n

He has threatened to invade and take over Greenland<\/a> from Denmark, a Nato ally, as well as withdrawing some 5,000 American troops from Germany, who are helping to defend the continent from Russia.<\/p>\n

And let\u2019s not forget his tendency to side with Vladimir Putin instead of \u00a0Volodymyr Zelensky in his efforts to mediate an end to the Russia-Ukraine war.<\/p>\n

Despite all this, Mr Macron and Mr Carney have so far been unable to find support for a unified response to Mr Trump.<\/p>\n

Their complaints about leaders not standing up for their own interests would often be ignored, as counterparts opted to appease the US president rather than opposing him.<\/p>\n

But now, the gloves may finally come off.<\/p>\n

\"Emmanuel<\/p>\n

Emmanuel Macron, who came up with the idea for the European Political Community summits, is welcomed by Vahagn Khachaturyan, the president of Armenia, at Yerevan airport on Sunday – Ludovic Marin\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Sir Keir Starmer, Germany\u2019s Friedrich Merz<\/a> and Italy\u2019s Giorgia Meloni<\/a> were all considered to have relatively good relations with Mr Trump, but have become targets of his anger for refusing to join his war in Iran. Their bridge-building gambits have failed.<\/p>\n

Instead, they\u2019re living in the world envisioned by Mr Carney in Davos<\/a> earlier this year, when \u00a0he bluntly warned that integration with the US \u2013 whether economic, defence or cultural \u2013 is a thing of the past.<\/p>\n

The speech made Mr Carney something of a star, with his wake-up call about a political \u201crupture\u201d threatening to chew up and spit out the world\u2019s \u201cmiddle powers\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re not at the table, we\u2019re on the menu,\u201d he proclaimed, without naming Mr Trump directly.<\/p>\n

Building \u2018a third superpower\u2019<\/p>\n

Those \u201cmiddle powers\u201d are now gathering in Armenia, and Mr Trump has not been invited.<\/p>\n

Recent events have left European and Canadian leaders scrambling to build a third superpower to stop themselves being crushed between the weight of the US and China.<\/p>\n

It all makes Canada joining the EU sound quite plausible. Recent polls show almost 60 per cent of Canadians would favour the move.<\/p>\n

In reality, it\u2019s probably a bridge too far, but Mr Carney\u2019s presence at the European Political Community summit will only add to the growing discussions about the idea.<\/p>\n

Try full access to The Telegraph free today. Unlock their award-winning website and essential news app, plus useful tools and expert guides for your money, health and holidays.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Officials in Brussels often joke about Canada joining the EU. Some European leaders, including Alexander Stubb, the Finnish…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[822,162,14035,14036,14038,2015,11688,111,10293,14037],"class_list":{"0":"post-30416","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mark-carney","8":"tag-canadian-prime-minister","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-emmanuel-macron","11":"tag-european-countries","12":"tag-european-leaders","13":"tag-european-parliament","14":"tag-european-political-community","15":"tag-mark-carney","16":"tag-mr-trump","17":"tag-vladimir-putin"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}