00:00Can Canada join the EU?
00:07Social media is abuzz with Europeans and Canadians alike calling for Canada to join the European
00:12Union following the recent hostility from US President Donald Trump which has pushed
00:17Ottawa to strengthen ties with its allies across the Atlantic.
00:21Prime Minister Mark Carney recently called Canada the most European of non-European countries
00:27After a survey published in late February found that 44% of Canadians believe their
00:31country should join the EU compared to 34% who say it shouldn't.
00:36But is this actually possible?
00:38Could Canada really join the bloc?
00:40European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's spokesperson said that the commission
00:44was honoured with the survey results but added that Article 49 of the Treaty on the European
00:49Union says that only European states can apply for EU membership.
00:53That is indeed what the treaty says but it doesn't quite lay out what exactly constitutes
00:58a European state.
00:59A 1992 document from the commission gives us a clue, referring to a combination of geographical,
01:05historical and cultural elements that make a European state.
01:09Membership of the separate Council of Europe also alludes to what counts as a European
01:13country.
01:14Still, countries from outside continental Europe have previously applied and even joined
01:18the EU.
01:19Cyprus, which is culturally and politically European but geographically located in West
01:24Asia, became a full member of the EU in 2004.
01:27While some of Turkey sits in Europe, most is also in West Asia, yet it's an official
01:32EU candidate country.
01:34Morocco, however, applied to join in 1987 but was rejected because it wasn't a European
01:39country.
01:40The most likely conclusion, therefore, is that Canada can't join the EU because it's
01:44not culturally, politically or geographically European.
01:48And a hypothetical Canadian application would therefore require a legal overhaul of the
01:52treaties.
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