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# The Associate
- URL: https://theroundabout.eu/the-associate/
- Published: 2026-09-30T09:01:45.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-30T09:01:45.000Z
- Author: Aristidis Myrmidon
- Tags: Issue 3, The Commissioner's Column

*By Constantine Murmur*

On 18 September 2026, Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada — a country that is not in Europe, shares no land border with any EU member state except Denmark across the Arctic, and has not applied for EU membership — addressed the European Parliament in Strasbourg and delivered what several observers described as the most compelling defence of European values, the rule of law, and democratic resilience heard in that chamber in recent memory. He received a standing ovation. The same week, the Commission announced that Canada would become the EU's first associate member — a category the Commission invented during the speech, declined to define afterwards, and has not yet submitted to any legislative procedure. Donald Trump called the proposal "laughable" and threatened "serious tariffs." The Daily Telegraph described it as "Carney's Meaningless EU Offer Unravelling." The offer was not Carney's. Commissioner Myrmidon has read the Telegraph. He considers this consistent with previous practice.

It is tempting to read the standing ovation as a compliment to Canada. Commissioner Myrmidon reads it differently. The European Parliament gave a standing ovation to a Canadian prime minister for saying things that European leaders have conspicuously failed to say about themselves — that freedom must be earned every day, that dominance is the arrogance of the hegemon, that no one should be permitted to control open markets, impair sovereignty, threaten territorial integrity, or undermine democracy and the rule of law. These are, Commissioner Myrmidon notes, the founding values of the European Union, as set out in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union. They are also, he notes further, values that the Commission has declined to invoke when applied to certain current situations — the systematic dismantling of the rule of law in certain member states, the weaponisation of migration by certain partner countries, the documented interference in European elections by certain foreign powers — preferring, in each case, the word "concern" to the word "violation." The Parliament applauded a Canadian for saying what it has been unable to say itself. Commissioner Myrmidon finds this, on reflection, the most accurate description of the state of European democracy he has encountered this year. He has formed certain views about what it implies.

The concept of associate membership, which the Commission proposed and declined to define in the same breath, has a certain elegance. It is a category capacious enough to contain anything and specific enough to commit to nothing — a quality the Commission has long admired in its own legislation. The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between Canada and the EU, signed in 2016, has not been fully ratified by ten of the EU's twenty-seven member states after nine years of provisional application. In France, the Senate rejected it outright in 2024\. In Italy, ratification has been blocked since 2018\. In Belgium, the final signatory to the original agreement, it has not been submitted to parliament. CETA covers trade. Associate membership would cover, according to the various officials who have described it, trade, security, defence, space, critical minerals, energy, AI regulation, financial markets, and student exchanges. Commissioner Myrmidon notes that the EU has not yet managed to agree on the full ratification of an agreement about cheese and beef. He looks forward with interest to the ratification of an agreement about nuclear deterrence and financial market integration. Madame Graticula has suggested he should not hold his breath. The Commissioner considers this advice characteristically sound.

The Daily Telegraph, in a piece headlined "Carney's Meaningless EU Offer Unravels," described the associate membership proposal as "dead on arrival." The offer was made by Ursula von der Leyen. The Telegraph did not correct this. It has not corrected it since. The Parliament's standing ovation has also not been corrected. Nor has Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union, which remains in force, defining the values the EU exists to uphold, and which a Canadian prime minister came to Strasbourg to remind it of. Commissioner Myrmidon has read Article 2\. He considers it timely.