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Yeah good luck with that. Expect it to be watered down to something meaningless. EU countries are unlikely to agree on an meaningful " associate membership" due to the so called 4 pillars of the EU.

Brexit was hugely contentious in the EU, and the initial shock has passed with the rise of far right groups across the continent again calling for secession. So its more important than ever for the EU to hold to its principle that membership has to be all or nothing. Even the UK is tentatively turning back towards full membership as the right wing have lost power (for now).

Von Der Leyen overstepped with this idea. It makes sense for the EU to build relationships and exploit the US retrenchment. But it does not make sense to do that by reopening existing wounds.

The biggest issue is political and a choice European politicians made: freedom of movement is inherently linked to single market membership. It is painted as nonnegotiable but it is actually a politically and ideological choice by EU leaders, and its something the right wing in particular have turned against as immigration now outweighs the economic benefits of mobile work force for them.

In particular with the French presidential election coming up - and the right in pole position - dont expect the EU to do risk anything that undermines the 4 pillars.