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Working together
The EU–US partnership has built the largest bilateral trade and investment relationship in the world. But it is more than just the numbers, however impressive, writes Günter Verheugen, vice-president, European Commission
 Günter Verheugen |
We share a determination to prevail against today’s challenges, and a conviction that, by working together, we can further strengthen this relationship and achieve considerable economic benefits and significantly improved competitiveness for both partners.
In recent years the European Commission and the US government have launched important initiatives to remove barriers to transatlantic trade and investment, helping create an environment where industry can create growth and jobs, and facilitating transatlantic business. The business communities on both sides of the Atlantic are offering valuable support to this process, and the dialogues between business and government, such as the Transatlantic Business Dialogue (TABD), play a key role.
The 2005 EU–US summit called for closer transatlantic co-operation, including on regulatory, innovation, trade and security and intellectual property rights (IPR) issues. We must now focus on implementing these decisions and tackling specific challenges in many areas. We are set to make good progress through the new high-level EU–US Regulatory Cooperation Forum and implementation of the 2005 Regulatory Roadmap and, in IPR, on issues such as border enforcement co-operation, public-private partnership and co-ordinating our approaches vis à vis third countries.
We need to aim for further cooperation on the liberalisation of EU–US air services, more work on improving co-ordination of innovation policy and greater progress on several important programmes involving science, technology and research and development. We must continue our successful financial markets’ regulatory dialogue, in view of the global nature of financial markets and the potential gains from facilitating transatlantic capital flows.
We are also looking forward to further developments in the Visa Waiver Roadmap process for EU member countries not currently participating in the Visa Waiver programme, as well as on measures to facilitate business and tourist travel.
We will need the determination and conviction of American and European businesses to achieve our ambitions, and I am sure ECACC and its members will play a significant role as the EU and the US continue to work together towards our common goals.