EU wants Canada as its first 'associate member,' von der Leyen says

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

60% : So, I would like to work with you on opening the door for Canada to be the first associate member of the EU," von der Leyen told Prime Minister Mark Carney, who was attending the speech.
60% : Von der Leyen said Canada and the EU have already increased their volume of trade by 75 per cent in less than a decade since the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) was signed.
56% : The European Union wants Canada as its first "associate member" and to "urgently reimagine" their relationship, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said during her annual State of the Union address in France on Wednesday.
53% : However, it is unclear whether the proposal for including Canada as an "associate member," a category that does not exist so far and would have to be specifically created for Canada, has wide support from EU member states.
53% : Carney has previously said that Canada was "not looking" to gain EU membership but was working to develop a "unique alliance" with Brussels.
49% : The European Union and Canada would move from CETA to an Alliance for the Future, von der Leyen said.
43% : While the trade deal has been provisionally implemented, it isn't yet fully ratified as some European Union member states still need to ratify the agreement in their individual legislatures.

*Our bias meter rating uses data science including sentiment analysis, machine learning and our proprietary algorithm for determining biases in news articles. Bias scores are on a scale of -100% to 100% with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral. The rating is an independent analysis and is not affiliated nor sponsored by the news source or any other organization.