LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Summer 2007

by Jonathan Evans

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Sir,
I cannot share Werner Weidenfeld's assessment that Europe's relationship with the US is in any way threatened by the current impasse over the EU constitution, still less by the failure of the European Union to establish a fully integrated European defence capacity. EU-US relations have significantly prospered in recent years, regardless of the myriad views on the way forward for EU institutional reform since the French and Dutch electorates rejected the original constitutional proposals in 2005. The problems associated with the creation of a European army are so longstanding that they pre-date the signing of the Treaty of Rome 50 years ago, and were central to the ill-fated efforts between 1950 and 1954 to establish the European Defence Community.

Today, even the considerable transatlantic tensions over President George W. Bush's perceived unilateralism over Iraq have largely given way to joint efforts to address the security situation confronting the Iraqi authorities on a daily basis. In the area of economics, trade and financial services, EU-US relations are also improving. For example, the US authorities are now willing to accept that their notorious Sarbanes-Oxley legislation to improve standards in company accounting may have damaged US corporate competitiveness as well as making life particularly difficult for European businesses that are listed on US markets. And while there remain real divisions between us on data protection, foreign investment in the US and a range of other matters, some senior members of the US administration now appear willing to learn from European experience in the area of corporate governance.

Of course we must all take account of the rise of China and India, as Weidenfeld says, but legislators in the US and Europe are together examining the challenges arising from the spectacular growth in Asian markets. MEPs and Congressional colleagues devoted considerable attention to this topic during one recent inter-parliamentary meeting in London. At our most recent gathering in Charleston, South Carolina, we turned our attention to world energy security and the critical importance of supplies to Europe and the growing markets in the East.

On top of all this, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has given a high priority to further enhancing EU-US relations in her country’s term as EU president. For instance, she is actively promoting the concept of developing a true transatlantic market which is a long-standing aspiration of the European parliament. With the recent EU-US summit establishing a new high-level Transatlantic Economic Council, further significant steps are now being taken to make this aim a reality.