What does a coherent and unified European community (now known as the EuropeanUnion) mean to the United States? Is it a threat, a competitor, or a partner? Oris it the three combined together? I think it is the three combined together. Depending on the situation, whether economically, politically, or military, theEuropean Union has acted as a threat, competitor or a partner to the UnitedStates.
This could be demonstrated using different economic, political andmilitary examples. First, lets look at the role and involvement of the UnitedStates in the Formation of the European Union. The United States has maintaineddiplomatic relations with the European Union since 1953, when the first USObservers to the European Defense Community and the European Coal and SteelCommunity were nominated. In 1961, the US Mission to the European Communities -now the European Union – was established.
The European Commission is representedin the United States by a Delegation in Washington, which was established in1954. In 1971 the Washington office became a Delegation with full diplomaticprivileges and immunities. The Delegation represents the European Commission inits dealings with the US government. It reports on US developments toheadquarters in Brussels and acts as a liaison with other internationalinstitutions in Washington, DC. The European Union and the United States holdtwice-yearly presidential summits to assess and develop transatlanticcooperation.
The EU-US summits bring together the President of the United Statesand the President of the European Commission. The EU-US Presidential Summitsstarted as a result of the November 1990 Transatlantic Declaration. In December1995, a step forward in the relations was taken at the EU-US Summit in Madrid,when the European Union and the United States adopted the New TransatlanticAgenda. Both sides pledged to work together to promote peace, democracy andstability, foster economic growth and liberalization worldwide, meet globalchallenges such as terrorism and environmental degradation, and to buildstronger non-governmental links between the people of Europe and the UnitedStates. Thus, the New Transatlantic Agenda launched an era of cooperation on awide range of political and economic issues.
This led in 1998 to a furtherdeepening of the framework for economic relations, when the London Summit of May1998 launched the Transatlantic Economic Partnership. I would now like to raisethe question ” why is the US so keen on its relationship with the EuropeanUnion, why is there a great deal of involvement and cooperation between them? Ithink the answer to this question goes back to the fact stated in the beginning:the European Union is a potential threat, competitor or partner to the US. Bykeeping a strong relationship with the European Union, the US is trying toeliminate the threat and competition and strengthen the partnership. Thecreation of a single European market has boosted cross-border business, creatingeconomies of scale, increasing Europe’s competitiveness and leverage on worldmarkets, and providing new opportunities for US exporters and investors. Nowadays, the European Union and the United States are the two largest economiesin the world.
They account together for about half the entire world economy. They also have the biggest bilateral trading and investment relationship. Bothrealized that by working together, they could promote their common goals andinterests in the world much more effectively. Although, the EU and US have astrong and long-standing economic relationship, it is only more recently thatthe EU as such has emerged as a potential partner in foreign policy for the US. Because of the EU’s importance as an international donor and, in particularsince the entry into force of the Maastricht Treaty on European Union, and itsincreasingly influential role in international diplomacy, the EU-US partnershipnow covers the full range of foreign policy issues. The EU and the US are alsolinked by close security ties and a similar set of values, belief in democraticgovernment, human rights and market economics.
They share a common concern inhandling effectively a wide variety of political and security issues across theworld. Even if transatlantic achievements in the area of foreign policy are lessvisible and numerous than in the trade policy field, it is becoming increasinglyevident that, in politics as in economics, where they have common interests theEU and the US can achieve more by acting together than when they act separately. This could be seen through the example of Kosovo and the Middle East peaceprocess. There are other areas, however, where EU-US cooperation still has agood deal of scope for improvement.
In some cases, co-operation has been heldback by internal political factors: in the case of the EU this sometimesreflects the difficulty of achieving consensus between all Member States. On theUS side, lack of support in Congress for multilateral commitments (such as inthe case of UN financing, the Anti-Landmines Convention and the ratification ofChemical Weapons Convention) can sometimes be problematic. Different policyapproaches also exist towards certain “countries of concern”, and inparticular Iran and Cuba. Whilst the EU fully shares the US’s determination toensure international security and full respect of human rights and democraticprinciples, the EU does not share the US’s political strategy of isolating thesecountries.
In conclusion, I would like to say that diversity of Amercian societyowes much to successive waves of immigration from practically every Europeancountry during the course of the past five hundred years, and this accounts forthe extent to which Europeans and Americans share common values and maintainclose cultural, economic, social and political ties. Both the US and theEuropean Union understand that the basis for their cooperation is the respectwhich each partner has for the other’s positions and the recognition that,whatever the difficulties, they are stronger acting together than actingseparately. Work sited Curtis, Michael. ” Introduction to ComparativeGovernment”.
HarperCollins Collage Publishers, New York, 1993BibliographyCurtis, Michael. ” Introduction to Comparative Government”.HarperCollins Collage Publishers, New York, 1993
