Half-joking comments about Canada joining the bloc have become common as Ottawa adapts to its fraying relationship with the United States.
France’s foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot has floated the idea that Canada could one day join the European Union, using the transatlantic ally as a striking example of the bloc’s global appeal.
Speaking at the Europe 2026 conference in Berlin alongside his German counterpart Johann Wadephul, Barrot argued that the EU is increasingly attracting partners far beyond its borders as geopolitical tensions soar.
Barrot’s Canada remark was not presented as a concrete policy proposal, but rather as part of a broader argument that the EU is emerging as a “third superpower” capable of balancing the rivalry between the United States and China.
The EU does complicate Gleichschaltung of the kind we see in the US indeed. This could be observed in Poland and Hungary, that the EU is at least an obstacle to some extend. However, like I said. Even that can only take so and so much erosion of institutions, especially once the populist authoritarians, energised by Russian support take over a majority in the EP and the Council (with the help of voters of course).
No democratic entity can survive voters persistingly voting for the end of democracy. No matter how it is set up.