Germany, Italy, France and Greece objected to a draft EU-Canada declaration that cites von der Leyen’s ‘associate membership’ offer, as the member states fear legal uncertainty and a precedent for other third countries ahead of the Montreal summit on Thursday and Friday.
These headlines have been popping up frequently in recent months, but this topic is hopelessly overstated in my opinion. There is no such thing as an "associate EU membership’. What is much more important is the fact that Canada will come closer to the EU than ever, and it will be very close. THIS is much more important than how we call it.