Transatlantic Relations: The U.S.-EU Partnership

U.S. cooperation with the EU is based on the Transatlantic Declaration of 1990 and the New Transatlantic Agenda (NTA), adopted in 1995. This cooperation, which has been gradually deepened and broadened, takes place on many levels and includes summit meetings at the level of heads of state and government between the U.S., the European Commission and the country holding the EU Presidency.

Transatlantic cooperation builds on the strong community of interests between the U.S. and EU member states. In addition, the flow of transatlantic trade and investments is the largest in the world and amounts to a value of up to a billion U.S. dollars every day. The EU and the U.S. together account for about 37% of the value of global trade in goods and about 45% of world trade in services.

Establishing Diplomatic Relations
 To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Rome on March 25, 2007, the U.S. Embassy in Berlin placed a large banner at the site of its future home on Pariser Platz next to the Brandenburg Gate. Photo: U.S. Embassy BerlinDiplomatic relations between the U.S. and the European Community were initiated in 1953 when the first U.S. observers were sent to the European Coal and Steel Community. The U.S. Mission to the ECSC formally opened in Luxembourg in 1956. The Delegation of the European Commission to the United States in Washington, D.C. was established in 1954, and the United States Mission to the European Communities, now the United States Mission to the European Union, was established in 1961 in Brussels.

In Brussels on November 25, 2003, and on May 6, 2004, in Washington, D.C., the U.S. and the EU celebrated 50 years of diplomatic ties.

Formalized Cooperation
In 1990, the relations of the U.S. with the European Community were formalized by the adoption of the Transatlantic Declaration. A regular political dialogue between the U.S. and the EC was thereby initiated at various levels, including regular summit meetings. The cooperation focused on the areas of economy, education, science and culture

The New Transatlantic Agenda (NTA), which was launched at the Madrid summit in 1995, carried the cooperation forward. The NTA contains four broad objectives for U.S.-EU collaboration:

  • Promoting peace and stability, democracy and development around the world: including joint leadership in reconstruction in Bosnia-Herzegovina; promoting peace in the Middle East; helping Russia and the Central European countries in strengthening their democracies; acting jointly on humanitarian assistance and preventive diplomacy.

  • Responding to Global Challenges: this includes cooperative efforts to combat international crime and narcotics; a commitment to protect the environment by taking coordinated initiatives; a program to combat communicable diseases by setting up an early warning system.

  • Contributing to the expansion of world trade and closer economic relations: the Agenda calls for supporting the World Trade Organization and strengthening the multilateral trade system to reduce of eliminate barriers to the flow of goods and services. The creation of a New Transatlantic Marketplace is intended to further liberalize transatlantic economic ties.

  • Building Bridges Across the Atlantic: the Agenda seeks to expand commercial, cultural, educational and scientific exchanges to ensure public understanding of and support for the transatlantic relationship. The Transatlantic Business Dialogue is an early example of such links and is playing an important role in improving the flow of trade, investment, capital and technology across the Atlantic.

In connection with the adoption of the New Transatlantic Agenda a Joint EU-U.S. Action Plan was drawn up committing the EU and the U.S. to a large number of measures within the overall areas of cooperation. As an extension of the NTA efforts, agreement was reached at the 1998 London summit to intensify cooperation in the area of trade, which resulted in the Transatlantic Economic Partnership (TEP). The TEP covers both bilateral and multilateral trade. Bilaterally, TEP addresses various types of obstacles to trade and strives to establish agreements on mutual recognition in the areas of goods and services. Furthermore, there is cooperation in the areas of public procurement and intellectual property law. Multilaterally, focus is on further liberalization of trade within the WTO in order to strengthen world trade. The interests of the business sector, the environment and the consumers are to be integrated into this work.

In building bridges across the Atlantic, a number of people-to-people dialogues have been set up. The goal is to enable individual actors to give their opinion. The idea is that the dialogues shall be involved in policy-making by presenting recommendations to governments on matters that concern them. In connection with each summit meeting time is set aside for meetings with representatives of one or more of these dialogues, which include the Transatlantic Business Dialogue (TABD); the Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD); the Transatlantic Policy Network (TPN), a non-governmental grouping of members of the U.S. Congress and the European Parliament, business leaders and think tanks; the Transatlantic Environmental Dialogue (TAED); and the Transatlantic Legislators Dialogue (TALD).  The U.S. Congress has also formed an EU Caucus to further congressional understanding of the EU.

President Bush Greets European Commission President Barroso at the White House, January 8, 2007. White House photo by Eric DraperOnce a year, a summit meeting is held between the U.S. President, the Head of Government of the country holding the EU Presidency, and the President of the European Commission. Within the framework of the summit meeting, and also in separate ministerials during each council presidency, the U.S. Secretaries of State and Commerce meet the foreign and trade Ministers of the country holding the EU Presidency, together with the EU Commissioners for foreign affairs and trade. The High Representative for the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy also participates in these talks.

Information on U.S.-EU agreements from the Trade Compliance Center, part of the Commerce Department's International Trade Administration.

"We need to reinvest in the tools of our transatlantic partnership," Kurt D. Volker, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, said May 2. "First among these is NATO. This is the one place where the U.S. and European Allies are together, at a single table, and debate and decide together. NATO is responsible for the security that underpins the prosperity and peace that Europe enjoys today. Yet ask a European about the top things that they place importance on, and you’ll get their nation and language, the EU, climate change – but NATO would scarcely be among them, at least in Western Europe. Yet we need a strong and dynamic NATO today no less than in the past. We need it for hard, practical reasons, and because it is also a key part of the glue of our transatlantic community. This is why President Sarkozy’s announcement that France will fully normalize its role within NATO and co-host next year’s NATO Summit is so significant. We also need a strong European Union, and a close U.S.-EU partnership," he said. "There should be no question: the United States fully supports a strong EU. This is still a relationship in its infancy, however, and the sense of being a single “U.S.-EU community” is not a phrase that usually rolls off the tongue. It is somehow different when Europeans decide only among themselves on policies, and then exchange views with the U.S., versus when we sit together and make joint decisions together. That is what we do at NATO, and what we need to do better in our U.S.-EU efforts."

And more...

2008: Marshall Plan Holds Lessons for Middle East, Says Bush (Jun 13, 2008) (Remarks) | 2008 U.S.-EU Summit in Brdo, Slovenia (Jun 10, 2008) (including Transatlantic Economic Council Report to the EU-U.S. Summit 2008) | State's Graffy: Trade, Climate Change and Soft Power -- Does America Have Friends in Europe? | State’s Kurt Volker’s Remarks on U.S., European Challenges (May 6, 2008) | Under Secretary Burns Discusses U.S.-European Ties in Interview (Feb 12, 2008)

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to the United States Klaus Scharioth, Ambassador and Head of the European Commission Delegation to the U.S. John Bruton and U.S. Assistant Secretary Daniel Fried applaud European Commission Member Andris Piebalgs' (Latvia) remarks at a reception on March 26, 2007, in the State Department’s Benjamin Franklin Diplomatic Reception Room on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Treaties of Rome.2007: U.S. Ambassador to NATO Nuland Urges EU, NATO to Work Together (Oct 16, 2007) | State's Hughes Discusses The Transatlantic Agenda in Budapest Speech (Oct 1, 2007) |  Bush, Socrates to Meet Sep 17 (Aug 30, 2007) | Transatlantic Alliance More Vital than Ever (Jul 2, 2007) | Marshall Plan 60th Anniversary (June 5, 2007) | Rice Awarded Eric M. Warburg Prize in Potsdam, Germany (Jun 1, 2007) | Under Secretary Burns Elaborates on Challenges and Opportunities Facing the Transatlantic Community (Mar 26, 2007) | U.S. Senate and House Congratulate EU on 50th Anniversary (Mar 26, 2007) | U.S. Commemorates 50th Anniversary of the Rome Treaties (Mar 26, 2007) | EU Chief Solana Cites Warm EU-U.S. Relations (Mar 22, 2007) | Under Secretary Burns Discusses U.S.-European Cooperation on Issues Beyond Europe (Feb 21, 2007) | President Bush Meets European Commission President Barroso & German Chancellor Merkel (Jan 2007)

2006

Senior Diplomat Previews U.S.-Europe Relations for 2007 (Dec 15, 2006) | Presidents Bush and Barroso to Meet in Washington in January (Dec 13, 2006) | State's Volker Discusses "The Future of Europe: The Ties that Bind and Divide" (Nov 13, 2006) | State's Volker and Carpenter Brief on Upcoming U.S.-EU Summit (May 31, 2006) | EPP Discusses Transatlantic Relations with State Department Officials (May 31, 2006) | State's Volker Reviews the Results of the Renewed U.S.-EU Partnership (May 11, 2006) | State's Fried Says NATO Not "Counterweight to United Nations (May 3, 2006) (Remarks) | Speech on "the Transatlantic Relationship-Moving our Partnership Forward," by Susan McCaw, U.S. Ambassador to EU Presidency Holder Austria (Apr 6, 2006) | State's Volker Discusses Challenges Facing U.S. and EU (Feb 6, 2006)

2005

President Bush speaks at the Concert Noble in Brussels on February 21, 2005.United States Wants Strong European Union as Partner, Bush Says (Jun 20, 2005) | Under Secretary of State Burns Outlines Trans-Atlantic Agenda (Apr 8, 2005) | Bush Calls for New Era in Transatlantic Unity To Advance Peace (Feb 22, 2005) | U.S., Europe Have Unity of Purpose and Message, Rice Says (Feb 9, 2005)

2004

Secretary of State Colin Powell at the German Marshall Fund, Brussels, December 8, 2004. Photo: Gery JacobsSecretary of State Colin Powell appealed to Europe December 8, 2004, to work together with the United States in pursuit of a free, peaceful and democratic Middle East and in support of democratic change wherever it takes place. "What President Bush calls the ‘transformational power of liberty' has been and will be the central element, the central push of U.S. policy for years to come," said Powell in a speech at the German Marshall Fund's Transatlantic Center in Brussels, Belgium. "We need to have the courage to seek fundamental change and not be satisfied with just managing or containing threats," he said. Powell urged that democratic change in the broader Middle East be the top priority of transatlantic institutions, including NATO and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Powell Urges Europe to Work with U.S. to Support Democracy (Dec 8, 2004)