Even Europe’s most Trump-friendly governments are lining up behind Canada in its escalating trade fight with the United States, in a striking snub to a president who’s spent months courting the continent’s right-wing leaders.
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European Union ambassadors from all 27 member states met in Brussels Wednesday to discuss deepening ties with Canada, just hours after Washington moved to block a range of Canadian goods, including dairy products, alcohol and motorbikes, from entering the U.S. market, Politico reported. According to two officials granted anonymity to describe the confidential talks, not a single country objected to the plan, despite the obvious risk of appearing to side against Washington.
A third diplomat familiar with the preparations said support for the outreach runs deep, even among governments typically wary of provoking Trump’s orbit.
“There’s very strong support for [Commission President] von der Leyen making that outreach and for closer cooperation,” the diplomat said, naming Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, Czech leader Andrej Babiš, and Slovakia’s Robert Fico as examples of Trump-aligned leaders backing the move.
The European Commission and Council jointly laid out plans for a major summit with Canada set for October 29-30, with both sides eyeing a broader alliance spanning tech innovation, joint research, and access to rare earth minerals, while also working to knock down existing trade obstacles between them. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney will personally address the European Parliament next week, part of a broader push to reduce Canada’s economic dependence on the U.S. and build a coalition of pro-free-trade democracies.
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A senior EU official said the trip is meant to send a clear signal that both sides want to upgrade the relationship. Officials are floating ideas ranging from Canadian participation in the EU’s Erasmus student exchange program to joint Arctic security initiatives and military-industrial cooperation, though nothing formal has been agreed and talks remain in early stages.
The Arctic in particular looks like fertile ground for cooperation, with the Commission preparing an updated Arctic strategy for October and von der Leyen recently signaling Europe wants a bigger presence in the region after a trip to Greenland. One EU official suggested any Canada-related content in von der Leyen’s upcoming State of the Union speech would likely center on security.
“Security and defense is always her happy place,” the official said.
Officials also pointed to shared interests beyond defense, including critical raw materials, subsea cables, Arctic-capable icebreakers, and cleaner shipping standards — an area where Brussels and Ottawa align but where the U.S. has actively lobbied against decarbonization efforts.
Trump has grown more and more belligerent against Canada in recent weeks, passing an order to rename Lake Ontario and posting a cartoon image of himself standing over Carney with a hockey stick.
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