Finnish President Alexander Stubb is seen during a joint press conference with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda (not shown) at the Presidential Palace.
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HELSINKI, Finland – Finnish President Alexander Stubb has outlined his vision for a bigger European Union, saying the 27-nation bloc needs to “think big” and seize the moment to project power around the world.
Speaking at an energy conference in the Finnish capital on Wednesday, Stubb said the EU should aim to expand its membership to 40 states and named the UK, Canada, Turkey, Norway and Iceland as potential candidates.
His comments come as the Trump administration’s actions, coupled with Russia’s war with Ukraine, are causing some countries to reconsider the benefits of EU membership.
Stubb told the Eurelectric Power Summit that the “window of opportunity” for EU enlargement “is very short because when the war in Ukraine ends and maybe when the US administration changes, I don’t know, then people will take their foot off the gas pedal and start laughing about unnecessary things again.”
Stubb added that “European strategic independence or European geopolitical power” is “generally based on size and scale and I think the best European policy ever was the enlargement of Europe.”
“At the moment, we need to think big and geographically, we need to expand or at least create a membership that is flexible enough to bring a total of 40 European – or non-European – regions,” said Stubb.
The European Commission, the EU’s top arm, did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
The EU is pursuing its biggest enlargement in a generation, as nine countries look to join the bloc in the coming years. Montenegro and Albania are seen as frontrunners among the Western Balkans, while Ukraine and Moldova are moving closer to opening formal membership talks.
Finland’s president said the EU should look to its western side and bring the UK, which left the bloc in 2020, back into the fold, or at least “as close as possible.”
Canada should be considered as an alternative, Stubb said. “Wouldn’t it be nice if Canada was the 28th region of the European Union instead of the 51st region of the United States?”
US President Donald Trump has expressed his desire to take over Canada. In a Truth Social post earlier in the week, Trump wrote “the 51st district!” when we shared a Bloomberg news article about Canada entering recession for the first time since 2020.
Canada’s Foreign Minister Anita Anand has previously said that the country is looking to diversify its trade relations and “double down on this middle power system,” referring to the idea put forward by Prime Minister Mark Carney at the World Economic Forum earlier this year.
‘No one talks about Turkey’
Stubb told the conference that after looking at Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia, “we need to think about Turkey.”
“No one is talking about Turkey anymore, and we need to open our minds to understand that at least from a security perspective, Turkey needs to be as close as possible,” Stubb said.
“Then you go south or southeast, we look at the Western Balkans, I mean that’s the hottest place in Europe … it’s very important. What do we do with Serbia, Kosovo, Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia? What do we do with Bosnia and Herzegovina?” he added.
Albanian Prime Minister 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 Summit in Brussels, Belgium, on May 26, 2026.
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“And finally, the ones that are really close to my heart, if you go up north, Iceland, which holds the poll, then Norway,” Stubb said.
“We need to start thinking big if we want to produce energy in the world. But who will do this, when, where and how, I don’t know,” said Stubb.
Iceland’s parliament recently voted to hold a referendum on August 29 on whether to begin negotiations to join the EU. The small Nordic country applied to join the EU in 2009 after the global financial crisis, before suspending membership talks four years later.
Iceland’s former Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir previously told CNBC that she sees no argument for joining the EU, adding that the country already maintains economic cooperation with the bloc and its citizens enjoy high standards of living.
The Blue Lagoon geothermal spa near the fishing town of Grindavik, Iceland, on May 23, 2024.
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“If the majority of people want to apply, it’s very important to listen to that majority, but I haven’t changed my position,” Jakobsdóttir told CNBC in mid-April.
Norway is reportedly reconsidering its relationship with Brussels as it navigates the power struggle between the US and China. Oslo has twice rejected EU membership.
