Fact check: Can Canada apply to join the EU?
Questions have been raised over whether Canada could hypothetically apply to join the European Union amid its crumbling relations with the US, but experts say its geographical and cultural distance to the continent poses a problem.
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/03/20/fact-check-can-canada-apply-to-join-the-eu
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Questions have been raised over whether Canada could hypothetically apply to join the European Union amid its crumbling relations with the US, but experts say its geographical and cultural distance to the continent poses a problem.
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/03/20/fact-check-can-canada-apply-to-join-the-eu
Subscribe to our channel. Euronews is available on Dailymotion in 12 languages
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00:00Can Canada join the EU?
00:07Social media is abuzz with Europeans and Canadians alike calling for Canada to join the European
00:12Union following the recent hostility from US President Donald Trump which has pushed
00:17Ottawa to strengthen ties with its allies across the Atlantic.
00:21Prime Minister Mark Carney recently called Canada the most European of non-European countries
00:27After a survey published in late February found that 44% of Canadians believe their
00:31country should join the EU compared to 34% who say it shouldn't.
00:36But is this actually possible?
00:38Could Canada really join the bloc?
00:40European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's spokesperson said that the commission
00:44was honoured with the survey results but added that Article 49 of the Treaty on the European
00:49Union says that only European states can apply for EU membership.
00:53That is indeed what the treaty says but it doesn't quite lay out what exactly constitutes
00:58a European state.
00:59A 1992 document from the commission gives us a clue, referring to a combination of geographical,
01:05historical and cultural elements that make a European state.
01:09Membership of the separate Council of Europe also alludes to what counts as a European
01:13country.
01:14Still, countries from outside continental Europe have previously applied and even joined
01:18the EU.
01:19Cyprus, which is culturally and politically European but geographically located in West
01:24Asia, became a full member of the EU in 2004.
01:27While some of Turkey sits in Europe, most is also in West Asia, yet it's an official
01:32EU candidate country.
01:34Morocco, however, applied to join in 1987 but was rejected because it wasn't a European
01:39country.
01:40The most likely conclusion, therefore, is that Canada can't join the EU because it's
01:44not culturally, politically or geographically European.
01:48And a hypothetical Canadian application would therefore require a legal overhaul of the
01:52treaties.