The European Union's top official said she would work to make Canada the bloc's first associate member, as traditional U.S. allies forge stronger ties in the face of tensions with the Trump administration.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Europe needed to tighten its cooperation with like-minded democracies, in particular Canada, to retain the continent's sovereignty and tackle threats from what she called "an openly hostile world."

"We must urgently reimagine our partnerships. And build global coalitions for our resilience and democracies," she said in her annual address to the European Parliament, where Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney was in the audience. "I would like to work with you on opening the door for Canada to be the first associate member of the EU," she added.

The Journal recently reported that Canadian and European officials were discussing the prospect of associate membership-a new category of relationship with the bloc. European and Canadian officials have said that while full membership of the EU is off the table, they want the closest possible relationship. The prospect of a new economic and defense alliance between Europe and Canada speaks to how the idea of "the West," long centered on U.S. military and economic power, is shifting.

Among the ideas being discussed is integration of supply chains in critical economic sectors, including defense, the possibility of joint European and Canadian cloud and data centers, greater Canadian energy flows to Europe and cooperation on AI and digital rules. Carney has confirmed that there are also discussions on certain types of mutual visa-free travel and work arrangements.

The details are still being sketched by technical working groups on both sides for what the Canadian leader has told his aides will be nothing short of reorienting an economy and a society that for half a century has been dominated by the U.S.

But serious obstacles to a much deeper relationship remain. Countries with access to the EU's $21 trillion single market have to follow its rules, pay into the EU budget and allow freedom of movement for its workers. Canadian officials have said they aren't willing to sign up to all those terms.

In her comments Wednesday, von der Leyen said that the EU and Canada should deepen their tech alliance, integrate their defense-industrial base and work together on energy, critical minerals, AI and economic security. The two sides enacted a free-trade agreement in 2017, which has seen commerce grow by 75% in less than a decade, but in a sign of the threats to a far deeper coordination, 10 EU nations are still to ratify it.

"This is a partnership not against anyone else, but for our common strength," she said.

Both the EU and Canada have seen tensions flare with Washington since Trump's return to office. In his second term, the president has alarmed European leaders by ending support for Ukraine and working to ease relations with the Kremlin. New U.S. tariffs on European exports and a push to take over Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory, have also seriously tested trans-Atlantic relations.

Since becoming prime minister, Carney has embarked on an ambitious plan to diversify trade away from the U.S. amid President Trump's tariffs on Canada and repeated musings about using economic coercion to make it the 51st state. Europe has been central to those plans, and he has often called Canada "the most European of the non-European nations." Canada was the first non-European nation to join the EU's defense procurement.

In Canada, the prospect of associate membership in the EU has drawn criticism from opposition lawmakers, who have argued that it risks weighing businesses down in regulations and red tape and amounts to a loss of sovereignty. Such a decision, they argue, shouldn't be made without consulting Parliament.

"The Saskatchewan farmer and the Atlantic fisherman did not choose a Brussels agrifood regulator that has never even seen our prairies or coasts," Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre said in a social-media post this week. "We will NEVER be the 51st U.S. state. And we will NEVER be the 28th EU state."

But polls show Canadians are strongly supportive of closer European ties. A poll this week from Abacus Data found that more than 80% of Canadians support strengthening links with Europe, with a majority saying they have more in common with Europe than the U.S. Nearly half said they backed Canada becoming an EU member state.

Von der Leyen will meet later with Carney, who will give his own address to EU lawmakers Thursday.

The European Commission president pitched the new alliance with Canada as part of a swathe of proposals to strengthen Europe's security and sovereignty at a time when relations with the U.S. are strained, Russia continues its war in Ukraine and is carrying out sabotage in Europe and trade tensions with Beijing are deepening. Russia denies involvement in acts of sabotage.