Finland’s Stubb says EU should expand to 40 states, including Canada
Finnish President Alexander Stubb is seen at a joint press conference with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda (not pictured) at the Presidential Palace.
Stick Pictures | Light Rocket | Getty Images
HELSINKI, Finland — Finnish President Alexander Stubb outlined his vision for a much larger European Union, saying the 27-nation bloc should “think big” and seize the opportunity to project power on the global stage.
Speaking at an energy conference in the Finnish capital on Wednesday, Stubb said the EU should push to increase its membership to 40 countries and named Britain, Canada, Turkey, Norway and Iceland as potential candidates.
His comments come as the Trump administration’s actions, as well as Russia’s war with Ukraine, have prompted some countries to rethink the benefits of EU membership.
Stubb told the Eurelectric Energy Summit that the “window of opportunity” for EU expansion was quite short, “because once the war in Ukraine is over and maybe when the US administration changes, I don’t know, then people will take their foot off the gas pedal and start dealing with unnecessary things again.”
Stubb added that “Europe’s strategic autonomy or Europe’s geopolitical power” is “mostly based on size and scale, and I think the best European policy ever has been European expansion.”
“We need to think big and geographically right now; we need to expand or at least create memberships flexible enough to bring together a total of 40 European states, or even non-European states,” Stubb said. he said.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
EU continues its biggest expansion in a generation nine candidate countries Everyone aims to enter the blog in the coming years. While Montenegro and Albania are at the forefront in the Western Balkans, Ukraine and Moldova are in second place. approaching Initiation of official membership negotiations.
The Finnish president said the EU should look to its western flank and bring Britain, which left the bloc in 2020, back into the fold, or at least “as close as possible”.
Stubb said Canada should be considered as another option. “Wouldn’t it be great if Canada was the 28th state of the European Union instead of the 51st state of the United States?”
US President Donald Trump has announced his goal of annexing Canada. In Real Social to mail Earlier in the week, Trump shouted “51st state!” he wrote. during sharing A Bloomberg news article about Canada entering technical recession for the first time since 2020.
‘No one is talking about Türkiye’
Stubb said at the conference that “we need to think seriously about Türkiye” after looking at Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia.
“No one talks about Türkiye anymore, and we need to open our minds to understand that Türkiye should be as close as possible, at least from a security perspective,” Stubb said. he said.
“Then you go south or southeast, we look at the Western Balkans, so this is the hottest spot in Europe… that’s very important. What do we do with Serbia, Kosovo, Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia? What do we do with Bosnia and Herzegovina?” he added.
Prime Minister of Albania Edi Rama, Deputy Minister of European Affairs of the Republic of Cyprus Marilena Raouna and European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos held a joint press conference after attending the 8th EU-Albania Accession Conference held in Brussels, Belgium, on 26 May 2026.
Anatolia | Anatolia | Getty Images
“And finally, if you go north, the ones closest to my heart are Iceland, where the referendum was held, and then Norway,” Stubb said.
“If we want to project power to the world, we have to start thinking big. But I don’t know who will do it, when, where and how,” Stubb said.
The Icelandic parliament recently voted to hold a referendum on August 29 on whether to start EU accession negotiations. The small Scandinavian country applied to join the EU in 2009 following the global financial crisis, before suspending membership talks four years later.
Former Icelandic Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir previously told CNBC that she did not see the argument for joining the EU, adding that the country already maintains close economic cooperation with the bloc and its citizens enjoy high standards of living.
The Blue Lagoon geothermal spa near the Icelandic fishing town of Grindavik on May 23, 2024.
John Moore | Getty Images News | Getty Images
“If the majority of the people want to apply, it is very important to listen to this majority, but I have not changed my position,” Jakobsdóttir told CNBC in mid-April.
Norway reportedly It is reconsidering its relationship with Brussels, which continues the power struggle between the USA and China. Oslo has twice rejected EU membership.
