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News Financial Services Canadian Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne will join a gathering of EU finance ministers hosted by Simon Harris in Dublin Friday. Simon Harris greets Donald Trump after the US president arrives at Dublin Airport on September 12, 2026 in Dublin, Ireland. | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images September 18, 2026 11:38 am CET DUBLIN — Closer ties between the EU and Canada won't mean a worse relationship between the bloc and the U.S., according to Irish Finance Minister Simon Harris. In an interview the day after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pitched making Ottawa an "associate member" of the EU, Harris said that closer ties with Canada "is not about having a less close relationship with anybody." "Ultimately the U.S. administration will understand that because it's the truth,” Harris, also Ireland's deputy finance minister, added.
Von der Leyen's suggestion, as part of her Wednesday "State of the Union" speech, has not gone down well in Washington, D.C., however. U.S. President Donald Trump warned it could be viewed as a “hostile act” which could see him hitting the bloc with “ very heavy tariffs .” Harris played down the reaction.
“The European Union and the U.S., politics aside, have an extraordinarily interdependent economic trading relationship,” he said. “We always judge the U.S. administration based on what they do, rather than initial comments, but the reality is we have a very close relationship with the United States economically.” Asked whether the EU will need to choose which trading relationship to prioritize between the U.S. and Canada in future, Harris said: “I certainly hope not.” Canada's in town The dramatic announcements around Canada and the EU's future relationship have come amid a flurry of economic diplomacy between the two sides. Canadian Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne will join a gathering of EU finance ministers hosted by Harris in Dublin Friday, after Prime Minister Mark Carney’s whistle-stop tour this week.
The finance ministers of the U.K., Ukraine and Switzerland are also joining to give updates on their economies and hold one-to-one meetings, despite the summit being consumed by disagreements over the EU's next seven-year budget. Meanwhile, the head of the European Investment Bank, Nadia Calviño, will head to Ottawa on Sunday to lay the groundwork for Europe-Canada cooperation on critical raw materials. Harris said: “It's a real vote of confidence in the European Union, quite frankly, that a country and an economy as big as Canada wants to cooperate.” “Some countries are choosing to look inwards, that's their right.
The European Union wants to continue to be outward-looking. It's a positive development, it's not a development against anybody,” he added. Von der Leyen’s pitch to make Canada an associate member — a legal status that currently doesn’t exist — has ruffled feathers among EU capitals after she made the surprise announcement in a major speech on Wednesday.
Carney has said he welcomes the plan's ambition, but stopped short of a full endorsement . Harris was positive on the pitch, calling it “really exciting” and pointing to climate and cybersecurity as two issues where the EU and Canada could cooperate. “I'm less concerned about what you call it, and more enthused by the idea that Canada and the European Union want to work together on a program of substance,” he said.
Trump visited Ireland last weekend, lifting the 10% U.S. tariff charge on Irish whiskey products as a gesture of goodwill. “We definitely don’t want to have that [whiskey tariff] back,” Harris said.
Source: politico.eu
