Finland's president says EU should expand to 40 states — including Canada
President of Finland Alexander Stubb is seen during a joint press conference with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda (not in view) at the Presidential Palace. HELSINKI
President of Finland Alexander Stubb is seen during a joint press conference with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda (not in view) at the Presidential Palace. HELSINKI, Finland — Finnish President Alexander Stubb has outlined his vision for a much larger European Union, saying the 27-nation bloc needs to "think big" and seize the moment 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 states and named the U.K., Canada, Turkey, Norway and Iceland as potential candidates to join.
His comments come as the Trump administration's actions, alongside Russia's war with Ukraine, prompt some countries to reconsider the benefits of EU membership. Stubb told the Eurelectric Power Summit that "the window of opportunity" for EU enlargement "is quite short because when the war in Ukraine ends and perhaps when the U.S. administration changes,
I don't know, then people are going to take their foot off the gas pedal and start heckling about unnecessary stuff again." Stubb added that "European strategic autonomy or European geopolitical power" is "often based on size and scale and I think the best European policy ever has been European enlargement." "In this moment,
we need to think big and geographically, we need to enlarge or at least create memberships which are flexible enough to bring in a sum total of 40 European states — or even non-European," Stubb said. The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC.
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