EU-US economic pact is target for friends reunited

By Dana Spinant and Tim King

Date: 24/02/05

Momentum is growing in Brussels in the wake of George W. Bush's visit to relaunch EU-US economic relations when the two sides meet again in June.

Members of the European Parliament and of the US Congress are increasing pressure on leaders on both sides of the Atlantic to breathe new life into an economic partnership between the EU and the US, taking advantage of the positive mood created by the meeting with Bush on Tuesday (22 February).

The aim is to use the next regular EU-US summit in June, which will mark the tenth anniversary of the New Transatlantic Agenda.

German MEP Elmar Brok, chairman of the Parliament's foreign affairs committee, said: "I expect the June summit will make decisions to launch the process aimed at achieving a transatlantic market."

A framework agreement for trade and economic co-operation would be the appropriate instrument to upgrade the EU-US economic partnership, he said. The aim of such an agreement would be to achieve a transatlantic market in ten years.

"We have explicit calls from Parliament and from the Congress on that aspect and Barroso is looking into this," he said.

The Commission President, José Manuel Barroso, called after his meeting with Bush for a removal of barriers on trade and investment between the EU and the US.

"We are determined to deepen the transatlantic economic partnership," he said. "Trade and investment are the bedrock of transatlantic relations. We want to build on this. Our common objective must be to remove obstacles to transatlantic trade and investment."

Peter Mandelson, the trade commissioner, has been pressing for "a new push" to reduce non-tariff barriers. His spokeswoman said that he had discussed the idea with Bush on Tuesday.

"A new political mandate should be given to start delivering on that, especially in view of the June summit," she said.

While careful to leave tariff issues for the Doha round, Mandelson has identified potential areas of improvement: greater regulatory co-operation or convergence, co-operation on security measures which impede trade, intellectual property rights and services.

A spokeswoman for Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the commissioner for external relations, said that at the end of May the Commission would present to Parliament and the Council a report on transatlantic relations to prepare for the summit.

There were, she said, "plenty of options" being discussed inside the Commission.

British Conservative MEP James Elles believes that there will be a decision for a sort of transatlantic partnership agreement "before the end of the year, under the British EU presidency".

But some in the Commission fear that if the initiative is dressed up too much it may provoke an adverse response from protectionist elements in Congress.

A US government official said: "We are waiting for the president to come back from Europe to see how this went. We know that it went well, but now all depends on our ambitions. Do we want something for the next two years? Or do we think ahead for the next ten years?

"We feel here in Washington that there is a strong political will to move forward."

Penelope Naas, director in charge of EU relations at the US Department of Commerce, said: "The last EU-US summit in June called for the US and EU to take a fresh look at our economic relationship and we spent the last six months taking ideas from stakeholders."

The Washington administration was viewing ideas and suggestions about how to proceed, Naas said.

Brussels insiders believe that the key message showing that the US administration will give attention to these suggestions is Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's declaration: "Now we have to work on the common agenda."

Elles said: "We see that there is a new atmosphere, so the question is: what do we do in practice?"

European Council President Jean-Claude Juncker said that "the EU and US should go beyond the stage of kissing and making up". "Between now and June we must work to make this reunion more concrete," he said.

Article says that after the visit of US President George W. Bush to the European Union on 22 February 2005, there was growing momentum to relaunch EU-US economic relations at the next regular EU-US summit in June 2005.