What an Associate Membership Would Actually Be

Talk of Canada taking some form of associate membership in the European Union raises a prior question: what is the template? The EU already has particular arrangements with individual countries — different tiers of closeness, not one membership product with a flag on it.

Geography is not the obstacle here. The distance between Canada and Europe is noted and set aside in the same breath as the political ties being discussed.

So the useful way to read any associate-membership proposal is to ask which existing arrangement it most resembles, and which obligations come with that shape. "Associate" is a category, not a single status.