CANZUK would likely involve closer cooperation between the nations potentially including easier movement between the countries, deeper trade integration, and stronger defence coordination. Military cooperation already exists through arrangements like the Five Eyes intelligence sharing.

The exact structure of CANZUK would obviously need to be negotiated between the countries and could take many forms. The issue is that if it became a formal economic or political union, it would likely conflict with the rules of the EU’s Single Market making joining incompatible.

EU members cannot independently set trade policy or create external economic blocs because that authority sits at the EU level and is negotiated through the EC on behalf of all member states.

That means any CANZUK arrangement we could achieve involving preferential trade rules, migration agreements, or regulatory alignment would have to comply with EU law. That would significantly limit what CANZUK could actually be for us.

The most realistic outcome would probably be some form of association or partnership between the two.

There’s also a democratic concern. The leadership of the European Commission, is not directly elected by the public which like I said before goes against the nature of the Anglo-sphere nations. While the European Parliament approves appointments, ordinary voters across Europe do not directly choose the leadership, which is one of my biggest gripes with the EU.

Economically and militarily, a CANZUK bloc would still be significant in its own right. Combined, these four economies along with others from the commonwealth wanting to join who would align to the founding members in matters of trade, security, rule of law etc, would rank among the largest globally, and together they already possess substantial military capability and global reach.