I'm so sick of Ursula's double standards and hypocrisy.

Pretty much everyone agrees they should simply be part of EEA (economic area) like Norway, not an associate. If you're going to do this, do this right instead of making up some new terminology for specific country that no one really knows what that even means.

Right now it just looks like posturing.

less formal but equally signifying.

...that's an oxymoron? The formality is what gave it significance.

There are people there intent to only mess things up. Isn't that all orban did for like the entirety of his rule of hungary, and Im pretty sure turkey was doing it too for awhile.

Same deal, different name. "Associate membership" does open a can of worms.

Really, it's not that big a deal, it was kind of a silly semantics game to call it "Associate Membership" anyway. It was more about headlines provoking the Coppertone Fascist. That a trade deal is cut is the important part.

the proposal raised questions among member states because existing EU treaties do not provide for such a status.

Diplomats said several governments were concerned about the lack of clarity surrounding the proposed arrangement and insufficient consultation between the European Commission and EU member states.

Germany, France and Italy were among the countries that raised objections, although they broadly support closer cooperation with Canada.