EU drops 'associate membership' offer for Canada from Montreal summit declaration after Germany objects to the term

Germany, France, Italy and Greece were among the member states that objected to the original draft text, forcing European Council President António Costa into hours of intense negotiations on Wednesday. The revised declaration replaces "associate membership" with a commitment to "ever closer association" — softer wording that stops short of any formal treaty status and sidesteps the legal concerns raised by the dissenting countries.

The concept of 'associate membership' was originally proposed by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last month in her State of the Union address, in which she invited Canada to become the first country to hold such a status.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz had himself suggested a comparable arrangement for Ukraine, yet Berlin is insisting that the substance of any closer cooperation must be established before a formal label is enshrined in any declaration.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who has been seeking stronger EU ties to offset the impact of Trump's tariffs, had already distanced himself from the terminology, indicating a preference for the phrase 'alliance for the future'.