{"id":39408,"date":"2025-04-21T22:06:07","date_gmt":"2025-04-21T22:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/39408\/"},"modified":"2025-04-21T22:06:07","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T22:06:07","slug":"canada-could-become-eus-new-member-state-but-expert-says-it-would-anger-french-farmers-world-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/39408\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada could become EU’s new member state – but expert says it would anger French farmers | World | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Experts have explained why they believe Canada<\/a>, despite being separated by the Atlantic, could be able to join the European Union (EU)<\/a>. A poll of 1,500 Canadian adults earlier this year found 44% thought Ottawa should look into joining the bloc, while 34% were against the idea.<\/p>\n

While the North American nation is some way from Europe, experts have explained to Politico<\/a> that the idea of Canada<\/a> joining the EU<\/a> is not an impossibility, albeit unlikely. Professor of EU<\/a> external democracy support at Maastricht University, Giselle Bosse, told the outlet that \u201cbeing European is more of a state of mind\u201d. \u201cLegally and formally a European state is not actually defined and looking into the past, we\u2019ve had European states that in a way are not limited to the European continent,\u201d she said, explaining EU<\/a> nations have overseas territories in other areas of the world.<\/p>\n

She described Canadians as \u201cspecial Europeans, in a way\u201d, with the nation\u2019s systems based on European models and many Canadians having ancestry linked to Europe – however, said she doesn\u2019t see Canada joining the EU<\/a> as likely in the short-term.<\/p>\n

Professor of European politics at ETH Zurich, Frank Schimmelfennig, told Politico<\/a> he believes Canada \u201cwould certainly qualify\u201d as the country is \u201cin very many ways probably closer to those European values, institutions and policies than many of the current candidate countries\u201d.<\/p>\n

There are currently nine nations, known as candidate countries, looking to join the EU<\/a>; Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey<\/a> and Ukraine<\/a>. Kosovo is listed as a potential candidate.<\/p>\n

Any decision on Canada<\/a> joining the EU<\/a> would belong to the bloc\u2019s 27 member nations and the European Commission.<\/p>\n

Deputy director at the Center for European Reform think tank, Ian Bond, told Politico<\/a> he believes it would be \u201cextremely difficult\u201d to argue Canada<\/a> is a European country for a number of reasons and that it doesn\u2019t make economic sense due to EU<\/a> tariffs on imports from the US.<\/p>\n

He added Canada<\/a> joining the bloc would require referendums in countries such as France<\/a> – and warned French farmers, whose large protests have gathered huge media attention, would likely be unimpressed.<\/p>\n

Mr Bond said: \u201cHow often have French farmers voted in favor of free trade with other parts of the world? They are more likely to set things on fire in an effort to prevent it from happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

It comes as tensions between Canada<\/a> and its closest neighbour the US<\/a> continue.<\/p>\n

The Trump<\/a> administration\u2019s tariffs policy and talk of making Canada<\/a> the US<\/a>\u2019 51st state have infuriated many Canadians.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Experts have explained why they believe Canada, despite being separated by the Atlantic, could be able to join…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39409,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[943,2000,299,5187,1699,11508],"class_list":{"0":"post-39408","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-canada","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-european","12":"tag-european-union","13":"tag-politics-section"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114378229967195965","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}