News and information from Europe 🇪🇺
(Current banner: La Mancha, Spain. Feel free to post submissions for banner images.)
(This list may get expanded when necessary.)
We will use some leeway to decide whether to remove a comment.
If need be, there are also bans: 3 days for lighter offenses, 14 days for bigger offenses, and permanent bans for people who don't show any willingness to participate productively. If we think the ban reason is obvious, we may not specifically write to you.
If you want to protest a removal or ban, feel free to write privately to the mods: @[email protected], @[email protected], or @[email protected].
As a Canadian, I support the idea of trade agreements with the EU, especially ones that could benefit our Indigenous communities. I support allyship with the EU. But I don’t want to be a part of the EU. We can’t ditch Mexico.
EU/Canadian dual citizen here: full membership doesn't make sense. Deeper integration to the point of having a customs union would probably be quite reasonable. I'm not sure about free movement of people however because the two parties have different attitudes to immigration. Canada cherishes immigration and cultural diversity, and considers it to be a defining national characteristic. Multiculturalism is quite literally baked in our constitution. European attitudes on the other hand, let's just say, I don't miss them. Beyond that, I don't think Canada needs the Euro (and the stability pact straightjacket) any more than it needs the USD.
I enjoy the "Canada can into EU?" memes, they're fun. It's also really nice that in this period of insanity we can help each other.
That said, yeah. A trade agreement that drops basically all friction, bilateral visa agreements that make travel and business easier & cooperation on military purchases would be the ideal scenario. There's a ton of things the EU and Canada can help each other with without Canada becoming a member.
@Barbarian would be great if EU finds a „second class“ membership where we only have a good travel and economy system with other countries but not a full membership. But when we look at UK, who left the EU, and how we struggle to find the way back to each other it‘s quite hard to imagine something like that at the moment. 😫
The EU has multiple "second class" membership options. Multiple non-EU countries are in Schengen, even more have no visa requirements.
Multiple countries have trade deals with the EU, including Canada (as soon as CETA gets fully completed).
I would fully welcome the Canadians and Canadiens into the EU. It means St. Pierre and Miquelon would not have a border anymore. Win win!!!
If someone had told me ten years ago that in 2025 the UK would have long left the EU and we were talking about a membership of Canada, I would have declared them bewildered. LOL.
I think the UK will have to rejoin now. We're too vulnerable.
Holy fuck, yes!!
Canada, come join us!
And Greenland should get to be a sovereign state as part of the EU as well - if they want to
That would be just fucking awesome all around! :-D
Well, Greenland was an EU member, but they left. Can't remember when, but it was before brexit, so the UK wasn't the only, or even the first, to leave. Possibly the last though, as the appetite for leaving seems to have dropped significantly.
As the current world situation looks very different, I think the EU is a much more attractive option - at least I hope so
I will never forget a conversation I had with some random Brit on Facebook before Brexit. He said to me, "You yanks don't know what it's like having your laws made for you by politicians you didn't vote for 500 miles away." In this hemisphere we call that Washington, D.C.
I mean, he had a point. What does a citizen of the American south know about secession, anyway?
The EU is not a geographical union despite it's name. Even then, Canada and Europe share a common border; the Atlantic Ocean. Also it's part of the Commonwealth, Has a strong economy, social politics, The Greco-Roman and Judaeo-Christian tradition. And they speak the two most common European languages. Canada makes more sense than Türkiye if you disregard distance.
One thing many Europeans tend to forget is that Islam is pretty much a European cultural tradition too. Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Albania are European countries. If Cyprus were reunited it would also count as one of the countries with a significant Muslim population. And there are traditional non-immigrant Muslim minorities in other places, like Greece, Bulgaria and North Macedonia. And of course, Muslim immigrants have lived long enough in European countries like France and Germany to start having legitimate claim at being part of the cultural fabric of those countries too.
Muslims ruled the Iberian peninsula for about 800 years. Islam had a very productive golden age of great scholarship, science and maths that had a huge influence on European thought and progress.
Even then, Canada and Europe share a common border; the Atlantic Ocean.
If the UK can join the EU, then Canada can join the EU.
I mean the UK is geographically European no matter how much a certain segment of the population likes to think otherwise.
Also sea border with Ireland
France's longest land border is with Brazil. Brazil has not been invited to the EU despite being the past home of the Portuguese throne which in a reverse colonialism move kind of makes Brazil a past European power, majority Catholic and they speak a European language. Brazil would be the fourth largest economy in Europe, ahead of Canada with higher economic growth. They would be past Italy and aiming for the French position in no time.
Pakistan, India, South Africa and Nigeria are Commonwealth countries. How about bringing in the other European ex-colonies? Indonesia has a lot of potential, similar sized economy to their old rulers the Netherlands and growing faster.
The reason Europe likely would be receptive to Canada isn't cultural. It isn't language. It is that they have a relatively small population with relatively high incomes and a lot of resources. They don't threaten the status quo.
I think full membership is very unlikely, but maybe Canada can join the EU Customs Union or even the Schengen Area at some point in the future.
Yeah, all for it.
We can thank Stephen Harper and Pierre Polievre for ignoring Europe for so long when we should have been there for you guys, helping you separate from Putin's oil and gas.
Hopefully Carney will remedy that situation, and we can all get rid of the despotic sycophants.
Dead Eyes Harper signed CETA (European Free Trade Agreement) which was negotiated in private.
Oh sure, but he illegally rammed three pipelines through to the BC coast to give oil and LNG to China, which doesn't want it.
Meanwhile he ignored the potential of a pipeline to the Maritimes, which could then ship oil and LNG to Europe. That would have revitalized the Maritimes and provided a much needed competitor to Russia.
I can't imagine Canada joining like a normal EU member country would. But I do hope Canada enters into special cooperation and trade agreements if possible.
Canada and the EU already have a trade agreement in place since 2017:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comprehensive_Economic_and_Trade_Agreement
CETA has been around for ages. Now if only taxes weren't applied on imported goods, we'd be set.
Yes and Australia too
Nah, Eurovision is enough. We are happy to be everyones mates and have access to their markets. Our focus is Asian markets and it hurts our interests enough that some in the region view us as a remnant of European colonialism without us leaning into that. We aren't colonial and we aren't European. We need to find our own identity. Unlike Canada we aren't heavily dependent on exports to the US and desperate to find a replacement. Our equivalent would be a trade war with China and we have already proved we can cope with that.
I am more concerned about the US alliance. If they can shit on Ukraine and by extension Europe all our strategic planning and defence investments are worthless overnight as we can't rely on parts, or support let alone US forces showing up.
We European would be happy to have you in, but unlike the US, we are not forcing someone to join. If Australia does not want to join, happy to have them in Eurovision only
Canada actually shares a land border with the EU.
There are so many regulatory hurdles, especially in farming and agriculture.
Canada actually shares a land border with the EU.
Brazil has a stronger claim if that was is all that counted.
Georgia has no such claim but is a great candidate for EU membership.
While technically correct. I don't think the existence of Hans Island, an uninhabited speck between Greenland and Canada really counts as a land border between the EU and Canada. Any trade would happen by ship or plane directly between the continents. Not a border corssing on Hans Island.
Although, if EU rules require some kind of land border... Hans Island might be important after all.
I can't imagine it and my gut feeling is that it's a terrible idea for the same reason as having the US be our military was a terrible idea. Geolocation matters, and Canadas location means it has interests that are fundamentally different from the EU. A major thing is that it doesn't have Russia breathing down its neck.
It also feels like a slippery slope where we'll eventually have Mexico and, god forbid, the US joining as well. Then suddenly the will of European countries is overshadowed by these North American giants.
That said, Canada is cool and joining forces against the US is good.
Canada very much has Russia breathing down its neck.
Look at a globe focused on the North Pole, and you will see that Russia, Canada, and Scandanavia all basically form a ring framing the Arctic ocean. Russia asserting itself in the Arctic is a major issue for us, and the situation could very well deteriorate as climate change intensifies.
If you are trying to say that Canada doesn't have Russia breathing down its neck, then you are wrong. Tensions over the Arctic have been high for years.
We're only one border removed via Alaska (which might as well be Russia if things keep going this way). And with the arctic ice melting, Russian warships & subs could directly threaten our north and west coasts.
We could just start a new european union and replace the UN with the old EU.
Canada isn't really a giant in any sense of the word. I mean it is one of the world's top economies, but so are Britain, France and Germany. Mexico is economically even smaller. The US should absolutely not be allowed to join, though, yeah.
Can’t we use our close proximity to Saint Pierre and Miquelon as a foot in the door?
Can't wait for Brazil to join the EU on that basis.
Aren't some parts of Outre-Mer France part of the EU, despite being located in the Carribean and South America?
Sounds good to me.
"Wait, it's all the European Union?"