EU Relations with the United States

Transatlantic relations encompass more than EU-US relations. North America and many EU countries provide for their common security in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The US also maintains strong political, economic, and cultural relations with many individual European nations, both within the European Union and elsewhere. Business and economic ties linking the two continents are extremely strong, and there are innumerable other nongovernmental organizations linking people and institutions on both sides of the Atlantic.

However, the US increasingly turns to the EU as a partner to share the burdens of world leadership. This is partly because of the emergence of the EU as a more significant political and economic global actor and partly because of diminishing preoccupation on both sides with the overarching security threat that bound Europe and the United States together so strongly during the cold war.

This new geopolitical environment led to changes in the nature of EU-US relations. The 1990 Transatlantic Declaration formally defined EU-US relations immediately after the collapse of Communism in Central and Eastern Europe. The 1995 New Transatlantic Agenda (NTA) and Joint Action Plan (defined below) stepped up this relationship from consultation to joint EU-US action as the basis for partnership in addressing a very wide range of regional and world issues.

The next era of transatlantic relations will be shaped by the ability of the EU to assume the broad range of responsibilities that come with playing a more active global role and by the willingness of the US to accept the EU as a full partner in dealing with issues that extend beyond the international economy.

Left to Right: EU External Relations Commissioner Patten, High Representative for Common Foreign & Security Policy Solana, Belgian Foreign Minister Michel, and US Secretary of State Powell.

Following meetings with EU leaders, US Secretary of State Colin Powell noted that:"77?e European Union's principled response to the September 11th attacks and to our call for a

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united Europe is good, indeed essential, for the United States, for Europe, and for the world. Our common objective is security for our peoples. Let no one doubt the will and the power of our free societies to defend the security of our citizens, even as we safeguard our democratic values."

(September 20, 2001)

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