Canada’s prospective “associate member” status with the EU may have been the result of von der Leyen’s unilateral decision?
Canada’s potential “associate member” status with the European Union could be in jeopardy.
On the 28th, the European edition of Politico cited a statement from the EU indicating that the bloc has abandoned plans to grant Canada associate membership status.
According to media reports, the idea of bestowing associate membership on Canada was an initiative taken unilaterally by Ursula von der Leyen, then President of the European Commission. She introduced the concept into her September State of the Union address without consulting any EU member states. Following objections from France, Germany, Greece, and other countries, the proposal was subsequently dropped.
Such conduct by von der Leyen is not surprising. Her pattern of making decisions without prior consultation with member states has occurred repeatedly. Last year, she publicly asserted that Europe would send military forces to Ukraine—an assertion that drew a direct rebuke from German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht, who emphasized that von der Leyen lacked authority to discuss or decide on the deployment of EU military assets.
As previously noted, these overreach actions are consistent with von der Leyen’s broader tendency to act beyond established institutional boundaries. Her appointment as President of the European Commission was largely the outcome of a political compromise between Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel. With Merkel’s retirement and Macron nearing the end of his tenure, von der Leyen appears to have forgotten how she attained her position, increasingly adopting a tone akin to that of an “EU president.”
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1880382071325699/
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author.