Von der Leyen proposes European Security Council including UK and Ukraine

Body would let members trigger emergency meetings, similar to Nato’s Article 4

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the European Parliament on Wednesday that she would propose a European Security Council including the UK and Ukraine, citing an urgent need to coordinate continental defence amid Russia’s ongoing threat.

“For a long time, we have discussed a leaders’ format focused on the security of our continent, with partners like Canada, Norway, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and others involved,” von der Leyen said during her annual State of the Union address in Strasbourg. “This is even more urgent now, given the nature and scale of the risks at play. This is why we will set out our ideas to make a European Security Council a reality.”

Calls for such a body have grown since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The proposal originated as a French-German conception, though additional countries have since expressed support, particularly as US President Donald Trump has questioned the Nato military alliance. Some nations have raised concerns that a new council could rival Nato.

Von der Leyen said the EU was “strengthening our work with Nato” and that expanded defence spending would be “fully aligned” with the alliance. At the core of the proposed council, she said, would be the ability to trigger an emergency meeting if one member felt under threat, similar to Nato’s Article 4. She described the body as a “mechanism to flank” Article 4 — a phrase that could be read as either complementing Nato functions or, in a military context, bypassing them.

On other policy fronts, von der Leyen said the EU would invite the world’s largest AI labs for talks on supporting industry efforts to manage frontier development, and would move to slash bureaucracy for businesses in the bloc. She also said many European families were worried about the cost of living and the “dizzying speed of change” of technology and its impacts on jobs and society.

She put forward plans to curb social media use among children, including banning platforms for those under 13 and requiring parental supervision for accounts held by 13- to 15-year-olds.

On migration, von der Leyen outlined a new emergency tool to help member states better manage mass migration movements, following a deadly influx of migrants to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in July. She said the tool would “only be triggered under a strictly defined set of criteria” and for a specific period, and that fundamental rights would be protected. According to BBC reporting, the proposal’s framing resembles that of European politicians on the right and hard right who have gained support in recent years for proposing a tougher approach. Some officials described the Ceuta crossing attempt as an “invasion” and argued asylum rules should be suspended to deal with such crises. Human rights groups worry such a move would see vulnerable people, including women and children, turned back and denied the protection afforded to them under international law.

The Strasbourg address also included backing for Canada to become the EU’s first “associate member” — an arrangement that does not currently exist and could take years to negotiate. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney attended the address and is scheduled to address the parliament on Thursday. Carney last week spoke of seeking a “unique alliance” with the EU.

Without naming Trump, von der Leyen said offering Canada some form of EU membership was “not a partnership against anyone else, but for our common strength.” She added: “Partnerships are a strategic choice for Europe. But they also respond to the fracture in the international rules-based system.”

Von der Leyen told the parliament that the EU and Canada “see the world with the same eyes,” including on topics ranging from AI, to climate change and geopolitics. “And we have stood together: on Ukraine, on defence, on raw materials and on supply chains. But above all… Europe and Canada believe in democracy,” she said.

The proposal comes as Canada faces strained relations with the United States. Trade talks between the two countries collapsed last month, sparking a series of new tariff measures. Trump’s repeated talk of making Canada a “51st state” has fueled tensions between the North American neighbours. According to the BBC, von der Leyen and other European leaders have found a reliable ally in Carney as they deal with similar problems, and in particular they have faced Trump’s aggressive use of tariffs and his threat to annex Greenland, which is a sovereign territory of EU member Denmark.

Von der Leyen did not provide specific details on how any Canadian membership would operate but listed manufacturing, technology, AI, defence, energy, critical minerals and economic security as areas for cooperation.

Earlier this year, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz suggested, to a mixed reaction, that Ukraine could be granted the same status. Countries in the western Balkans — Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia — are pursuing full EU membership, while Georgia and Moldova have also applied.

Ten of the bloc’s 27 member states are yet to ratify a free-trade agreement struck with Ottawa nearly a decade ago, and some European capitals would prefer to build on existing defence and trade arrangements rather than create a new form of membership for Canada.