They have to amend the treaty anyway to allow a new member state to join, so why couldn't they just amend it to remove that limit at the same time?
What really matters here isn't the letter of treaties, it is the political reality that it ain't happening. Canada's economy is very tightly bound to that of the US, joining the EU would be erecting all these new barriers to Canada-US trade which would hurt the Canadian economy, and the reduced barriers to Canada-EU trade wouldn't be enough to counteract that. There is no escaping the geographical reality that the US is right next door, the EU an ocean away.
> What really matters here isn't the letter of treaties, it is the political reality that it ain't happening.
And the political reality is that no one in the EU wants to widen the discussion to countries like Morocco, so the rule that the country must be in Europe is useful.
I don't think they really want Kazakhstan in the EU either, but the rule that "the country must be in Europe" isn't needed to keep them out. (Most of Kazakhstan is in Central Asia, but a small sliver is in Europe, by the standard geographical definition.)
You're right. You could say the same about Turkey.
And, really, Georgia (also granted candidate status) which is a problem in that a not insignificant fraction of the population isn't really sure if the EU is better than Russia.
But having a problem with expanding further east doesn't necessarily recommend that the EU should expand further south or west.
