[…] a European state does not mean one limited to the continent of Europe. Before 1985, Greenland was—via Denmark—part of the European Union’s predecessor the European Economic Community (EEC) despite being on the North American continental shelf […] Indeed, the European Union expressly recognises nine “outermost regions”—some as far away as the Indian Ocean—as part of the European Union. And in addition to this there are 13 overseas territories with a special relationship with the EU, including Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, which is just off the coast of, well, Canada […]
In essence, a European state need not, from a geographic perspective, be confined to Europe or even part of Europe. It would appear being European is state of mind […]
The real answer is not formal, but political. If Canada really wanted to join, and the member states and the European institutions wanted Canada to join, then a way would be found. The definition of “European state” could be fudged […]
What could […] evolve [as an alernative to Canada’s EU membership] is an entity that joins together the European Union with Canada and other non-members such as the UK, Norway and Iceland—and perhaps even Greenland—and that this entity could be placed on a formal footing. This would be outwith the EU treaties but would complement the EU bloc. And it would not then matter if the “Europe” label applied or not.
The law and politics of a hypothetical application by a country geographically outside of Europe