Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney wants closer links with the European Union and is exploring whether his country could become an “associate member” of the ​bloc, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.

The EU, which has not ‌been flexible about membership rules in the past, is open to the idea of granting Canada a yet to be created status of associate membership, the newspaper reported, citing unnamed officials ​both from the EU and Canada.

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Canada and ​the EU are discussing ways to let Canada’s goods, services and workers involved ​in strategic supply chains such as energy, AI, defence and critical minerals move freely, thus effectively ‌shifting ⁠the EU border, The Wall Street Journal said.

Canada and the EU are also talking about laying underwater cables, jointly constructing data centres, cloud storage and new satellite networks and infrastructure to ship Canadian energy to the EU, the newspaper said.

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Carney has ​spoken regularly with several ​EU leaders, most ⁠notably French President Emmanuel Macron, about the possibility of letting Canadians live and work visa-free in the EU, WSJ said, citing ​two unnamed officials familiar with the matter.

Both leaders are set ​to meet ⁠later this month.

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