Canada spat exposes widening rift between Merz and von der Leyen

Berlin’s effort to reserve associate status for Kyiv has collided with the Commission president’s Ottawa initiative. By NICHOLAS VINOCUR in Berlin Photo-illustration by Daniel Benneworth-Gray for POLITICO A dispute over what to call the EU’s future relationship with Canada is deepening a split between European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, four diplomats told POLITICO.

Berlin and Brussels are at loggerheads over von der Leyen’s proposal to make Canada an “associate member” of the EU, with tensions worsening after the Commission president touted the phrase at a summit in Montreal — just hours after a German-led push removed the wording from a joint statement approved by 27 EU capitals. Merz previously floated “associate member” as a status for Ukraine, as it works toward fully joining the bloc.

After the idea was roundly rejected, including by Kyiv itself, officials in Berlin see von der Leyen’s push to use the term for Canada as a rebuke of the German chancellor’s initiative.