LILLEY: Mark Carney needs to come clean on what he’d surrender to join European Union

PM says he wants 'unique alliance' with Europe, but Canadians deserve to know what it would cost in terms of sovereignty

Published Sep 14, 2026  •  3 minute read

Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks to journalists outside his office in Ottawa the day after the Liberals won three byelections on Sept. 1, 2026. Photo by Blair Gable /Postmedia Network

Mark Carney needs to be honest with Canadians about what pieces of Canadian sovereignty he’s willing to give up to achieve his “unique alliance” with the European Union.

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On Sunday evening, Carney told CBC that unlike what the Wall Street Journal had earlier reported, he wasn’t looking to make Canada an “associate member” of the EU. Instead, he said he was looking for a “unique alliance” with the 27-member trading bloc.

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Neither term has been defined and, quite frankly, it looks like Carney is playing word games.

Not that the Canadian public seems to mind. An Abacus Data poll found that 49% supported Canada becoming a full member of the EU. The same poll found that 80% of Canadians supported the idea that “Canada should deepen strategic co-operation with the European Union on foreign policy, defence and economic priorities.”

It sounds lovely, especially for a country that is looking to pivot, rightly or wrongly, away from the United States and President Donald Trump.

The question is: At what cost?

President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, left, and Prime Minister Mark Carney speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during the Ukraine multi-lateral meeting, co-chaired by U.K. and France at the 8th European Political Community (EPC) summit in Yerevan, Armenia, on May 4, 2026. Photo by Stefan Rousseau/POOL /AFP via Getty Images

Word games or real policy?

The EU doesn’t currently allow members that are not based in Europe. There is also no category known as an associate member.

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It’s worth noting that the same CBC story in which Carney denied seeking associate member status quoted an unnamed Canadian official as saying the term had been used in discussions, although by the Europeans.

What would Canada need to give up control over to get a deal that gave us the kind of deep trade access, deeper than a free-trade agreement, that Carney is seeking?

We don’t need to wonder. Such deals already exist.

The agreement with Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein requires those countries to follow European laws and regulations to gain access to the EU common market. In areas such as product standards, food safety, consumer protection, environmental rules and corporate law, EU standards take precedence over domestic law.

Norway, a supposedly free and independent country, must adopt most EU legislation, yet gets no vote. Its representatives can appear before committees and voice concerns, but they cannot vote on the rules that govern much of their lives.

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There is no way that the EU would grant Canada similar common-market access without similar concessions.

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The sovereignty question

Some EU regulations might be an improvement on what we have now and some would most certainly be worse. The real issue, though, is that we would not be making the decisions for ourselves.

Carney has told Canadians that he walked away from the trade deal on offer from the U.S. last month to protect Canadian sovereignty. He said the Americans wanted to control which countries Canada could sign free-trade agreements with.

How would getting close to the EU, the way Norway has, protect our sovereignty?

We’d be giving up much of our decision-making power to nameless, faceless bureaucrats in Brussels and Strasbourg.

This photograph shows the European Council logo seen at the EU headquarters in Brussels, on March 19, 2026. Photo by JOHN THYS /AFP via Getty Images

Europe isn’t the answer

Canada should trade more with Europe, but after a decade of having a free-trade agreement with the continent, our merchandise exports have only risen from $23.9 billion in 2017 to $42.8 billion last year. As a percentage of total exports, shipments to the EU have risen from 4.38% to 5.49% in 2025.

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Given the sluggish nature of the EU economy, we shouldn’t expect those figures to start soaring.

The International Monetary Fund expects the U.S. economy to grow by 2.3% this year, Canada’s by 1.5% and the EU’s by an anemic 1.1%. None of those are stellar growth rates, but the fact is Europe once had an economy that was competitive with, if not larger than, that of the U.S. Today, the EU economy is about 30% smaller than the American economy.

The idea of drawing closer to the EU on trade is a good one. The idea of a formal agreement that surrenders decision-making power from Ottawa is not.

If sovereignty was worth walking away from a trade deal with Washington, why would it be worth surrendering the same to Brussels?

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