European Union–United States relations

European Union	United States
Diplomatic mission
European Union Delegation, Washington, D.C.	United States Mission, Brussels
Envoy
Ambassador Stavros Lambrinidis	Ambassador Mark Gitenstein

Relations between the European Union and the United States began in 1953, when US diplomats visited the European Coal and Steel Community (the EU precursor, created in 1951) in addition to the national governments of its six founding countries (Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany).^[1] The two parties share a good relationship which is strengthened by NATO (a military alliance), cooperation on trade, and shared values.^[2]

History

Establishing Diplomatic Relations

Diplomatic relations between the U.S. and the European Community were initiated in 1953 when the first U.S. observers were sent to the European Coal and Steel Community. The U.S. Mission to the ECSC formally opened in Luxembourg in 1956. The Delegation of the European Commission to the United States in Washington, D.C. was established in 1954, and the United States Mission to the European Communities, now the United States Mission to the European Union, was established in 1961 in Brussels. In Brussels on November 25, 2003, and on May 6, 2004, in Washington, D.C., the U.S. and the EU celebrated 50 years of diplomatic ties.^[1]

Formalized Cooperation

In 1990, the relations of the U.S. with the European Community were formalized by the adoption of the Transatlantic Declaration. A regular political dialogue between the U.S. and the EC was thereby initiated at various levels, including regular summit meetings. The cooperation focused on the areas of economy, education, science and culture.^[1]

The New Transatlantic Agenda (NTA), which was launched at the Madrid summit in 1995, carried the cooperation forward. The NTA contains four broad objectives for U.S.-EU collaboration: promoting peace and stability, democracy and development around the world; responding to global challenges; contributing to the expansion of world trade and closer economic relations; and building bridges Across the Atlantic.^[1]

In connection with the adoption of the New Transatlantic Agenda a Joint EU-U.S. Action Plan was drawn up committing the EU and the U.S. to a large number of measures within the overall areas of cooperation. As an extension of the NTA efforts, agreement was reached at the 1998 London summit to intensify cooperation in the area of trade, which resulted in the Transatlantic Economic Partnership (TEP). The TEP covers both bilateral and multilateral trade. Bilaterally, TEP addresses various types of obstacles to trade and strives to establish agreements on mutual recognition in the areas of goods and services. Furthermore, there is cooperation in the areas of public procurement and intellectual property law. Multilaterally, focus is on further liberalization of trade within the World Trade Organization in order to strengthen world trade. The interests of the business sector, the environment and the consumers are to be integrated into this work.^[1]

In building bridges across the Atlantic, a number of people-to-people dialogues have been set up. The goal is to enable individual actors to give their opinion. In connection with each summit meeting time is set aside for meetings with representatives of one or more of these dialogues, which include the Transatlantic Business Dialogue (TABD); the Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD); the Transatlantic Policy Network (TPN), a non-governmental grouping of members of the U.S. Congress and the European Parliament, business leaders and think tanks; the Transatlantic Environmental Dialogue (TAED); and the Transatlantic Legislators Dialogue (TLD).^[1]

Together the US and EU dominate global trade, they play the leading roles in international diplomacy and military strength. What each one says matters a great deal to much of the rest of the world.^[3] Both the US and the majority of EU member states are members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).^[4][5] And yet they have regularly disagreed with each other on a wide range of specific issues, as well as having often quite different political, economic, and social agendas. Since the EU does not have a fully integrated foreign policy, relations can be more complicated when the member states do not have a common agreed position, as EU foreign policy was divided during the Iraq War. Understanding the relationship today means reviewing developments that predate the creation of the European Economic Community (precursor to today's European Union).

The European experience with the Trump administration (2017–21) left uncertainty vis-à-vis a realistic prospect on long-term predictability of US foreign policy.^[6] The period saw a deepening of contradictions between both parties, including trade, climate action and adherence to international treaties.^[7]

On December 2, 2020, following the 2020 US presidential election, a joint communication published by the European Commission lined up a proposal for a new agenda of improvement of the EU–US relations with the incoming Biden administration, seeking for partnership in four major policy areas: health response, climate change, trade and tech, and security.^[8]

On March 5, 2021, following a call between EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and US president Joe Biden, the EU and the US agreed to suspend all the retaliatory tariffs linked to the Airbus and Boeing disputes for a 4-month period.^[9]

On September 20, 2021, EU Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen called "not acceptable" the treatment of one of EU's member states (France) over the AUKUS submarine deal, when Australia, the United States and the UK negotiated a defence pact ditching a long-standing Australian agreement with France.^[10] Similarly, European Council president Charles Michel denounced a "lack of loyalty" on the part of the US.^[11]

The EU–US Trade and Technology Council (TTC) met for the first time on September 29, 2021, in Pittsburgh.^[12]

Comparison

	European Union	United States
Population	446,828,803 (2022)[13]	331,893,745 (2021)[14]
GDP (PPP)[15]	US$20.918 trillion (2021)	US$25.346 trillion (2022)
GDP (Nominal)[16]	US$17.128 trillion (2021)	US$25.346 trillion (2022)
GDP Per Capita[17][18]	$45,541 (2020)	$67,426 (2020)
Global merchandise exports[19] $ billion and world % and rank	1932 (2016) 15.4% (2)	1455 (2016) 11.6% (3)
Global merchandise imports[19] $ billion and world % and rank	1889 (2016) 14.8% (2)	2251 (2016) 17.6% (1)
Global commercial services exports[19] $ billion and world % and rank	917 (2016) 24.9% (1)	733 (2016) 19.9% (2)
Global commercial services imports[19] $ billion and world % and rank	772 (2016) 21.1% (1)	482 (2016) 13.2% (2)
Area	4,233,262 km2 (1,634,472 sq mi)	9,826,630 km2 (3,794,080 sq mi)
Population density	106/km2 (274.5/sq mi)	35/km2 (90.6/sq mi)
Capital	Brussels (de facto)	Washington, D.C.
Global cities[20]	Paris, Amsterdam, Milan, Frankfurt, Madrid, Brussels	New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago
Government	Supranational parliamentary democracy based on the European treaties[21]	Federal presidential republic based on the United States Constitution
First Leader	High Authority President Jean Monnet	President George Washington
Current Leader	Council President Charles Michel Commission President Ursula von der Leyen	President Joe Biden
Current Vice Leader	Vice Commission President Frans Timmermans	Vice President Kamala Harris
Legislature	Council of the European Union and European Parliament	United States Congress
Official languages	24 official languages, of which 3 are considered procedural (English, French and German[22])	None (English de facto national language only)
Main religions	72% Christianity (48% Catholicism, 12% Protestantism, 8% Eastern Orthodoxy, 4% other Christianity), 23% irreligious, 2% Islam.	70.6% Christianity (46.5% Protestantism, 20.8% Catholicism, 1.6% Mormonism, 1.7% other Christianity), 22.8% irreligious, 1.9% Judaism, 1% Islam.
Ethnic groups	Germans (ca. 75 million), French (ca. 65 million), Italians (ca. 60 million), Spanish (ca. 47 million), Poles (ca. 40 million), Romanians (ca. 16 million), Dutch (ca. 15 million), Greeks (ca. 13 million), Portuguese (ca. 11 million), and others	77.1% White American, 13.3% African American, 5.6% Asian American, 2.6% two or more races, 1.2% Native American, 0.2% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, 17.6% Hispanic and Latino Americans (of any race)

Trade

Euro-American relations are primarily concerned with trade policy. The EU is a near-fully unified trade bloc and this, together with competition policy, are the primary matters of substance currently between the EU and the US. The two together represent 60% of global GDP, 33% of world trade in goods and 42% of world trade in services. The growth of the EU's economic power has led to a number of trade conflicts between the two powers; although both are dependent upon the other's economic market and disputes affect only 2% of trade. See below for details of trade flows.^[23]

Direction of trade	Goods	Services	Investment	Total
EU to US	€260 billion	€139.0 billion	€112.6 billion	€511.6 billion
US to EU	€127.9 billion	€180 billion	€144.5 billion	€452.4 billion

In 2007, a Transatlantic Economic Council was established to direct economic cooperation between the two. It is headed by the US. Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economic Affairs and the EU's Commissioner for Trade. However, it is yet to produce solid results. A Transatlantic Free Trade Area had been proposed in the 1990s and later in 2006 by German Chancellor Angela Merkel in reaction to the collapse of the Doha round of trade talks. However, protectionism on both sides may be a barrier to any future agreement.^[24][25] Recent developments have seen the proposal of a new agreement called the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the US and the EU. This agreement has the aim of fostering economic growth through bilateral trade and investments.^[26] In August 2019, Trump announced an accord to increase beef exports to the European Union. The US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer signed agreement with Jani Raappana, representing EU Presidency, and Ambassador Stavros Lambrinidis of the EU delegation.^[27]

EU is one of the main trade partners of the US: In 2016, European-Union (28) is 18.7% of US merchandise exports, and 18.9% of US merchandise imports. In 2016, European-Union (28) is 30.9% of US commercial services exports, and 35.3% of US commercial services imports^[16]

The US is one of the main trade partner of the EU: In 2016, the US is 20.1% of European-Union (28) merchandise exports, and 14.2% of European-Union (28) merchandise imports. In 2016, the US is 27.2% of European-Union (28) commercial services exports, and 30.5% of European-Union (28) commercial services imports^[16]

In August 2020, the EU and US agreed, for the first time in two decades, to reduce certain tariffs (on a most favoured nation basis, meaning the tariffs are dropped for all trading partners).^[28][29]

US and EU-28 GDP in euros billions

Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.

Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.

Sources: EU sources (European commission, DG Trade[30]) build from third sources: IMF (World Economic Outlook, April 2017), EUR/USD exchange rate from Eurostat

Cooperation

Energy and sustainability

The US and EU cooperate on the topic of energy and sustainability. The general aim of both parties is to liberalize and enhance sustainability in the global energy markets. This cooperation officially started in 2009 when the EU-US Energy Council was founded. This institution regularly meets and addresses topics such as: energy security challenges, climate change, renewable energy, nuclear safety and research.^[2][31]

In February 2021, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen stated that the European Union and United States should join forces in combatting climate change and agreeing on a new framework for the digital market to limit the power of large tech companies.^[32] Both the EU and US have set goals by 2050 to cut its net greenhouse gas emissions and to become a 'net zero economy' respectively.^[32]

Defense contracts

In March 2010 EADS and its US partner pulled out of a contract to build air refueling planes worth $35 billion. They had previously won the bid but it was rerun and EADS claimed the new process was biased towards Boeing. The European Commission said it would be "highly regrettable" if the tendering process did prove to be biased. There was substantial opposition to EADS in Washington due to the ongoing Boeing-Airbus (owned by EADS) dispute.^[33][34]

Issues

Relations with member states
Austria Belgium Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Hungary Ireland Italy Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Netherlands Poland Portugal Romania Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden

EU–US summits

Summits are held between United States and European Union policy makers. When these take place in Europe, they have historically taken place in the country that holds the rotating Presidency of the European Union.

List of summits^[35]

Year	Host country	Location
1995	Spain	Madrid
1997	Netherlands	The Hague
	United States	Washington, D.C.
1998	United Kingdoma	London
1998	United States	Washington, D.C.
1999	United States	Washington, D.C.
2000	Portugal	Queluz
2001	Sweden	Gothenburg
2002	United States	Washington, D.C.
2003	United States	Washington, D.C.
2004	Ireland	Shannon
2005	United States	Washington, D.C.
2006	Austria	Vienna
2007	United States	Washington, D.C.
2008	Slovenia	Ljubljana
2009	Czech Republic	Prague (informal summit)
	United States	Washington, D.C.
2010	Spain	Madrid
	United States	Washington, D.C.[36]
2011	United States	Washington, D.C.
2014	Belgium	Brussels
2017	Belgium	Brussels
2021	Belgium	Brussels

^a The United Kingdom was a member of the EU at the time the summit took place.

Boeing and Airbus subsidies

The two companies are the major competing aircraft manufacturers, and both Boeing and Airbus are accused of receiving forms of subsidy from the United States^[37] and from some of the European Union member states respectively. Both sides have criticized each other for doing so.

In December 2020, the United States announced plans to impose additional tariffs on certain products from France and Germany, particularly aircraft parts and wines, in retaliation to tariffs imposed by the European Union.^[38]

Genetically modified food

Genetically modified food is another significant area of disagreement between the two. The EU has been under domestic pressure to restrict the growth and import of genetically modified foods until their safety is proven to the satisfaction of the populace.

Rendition

The Washington Post claimed on November 2, 2005, that the United States was maintaining several secret jails (or "black sites") in Eastern Europe. Poland and Romania, however, have denied these allegations. Also, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) planes carrying terror suspects would have made secret stopovers in several West European countries since 2001. Belgium, Iceland, Spain, and Sweden have launched investigations. On November 30, 2005 The Guardian calculated that CIA planes landed approximately 300 times at European airports. Most planes would have landed in Germany and the United Kingdom as a transit point to Eastern Europe, North Africa (possibly Morocco and Egypt), or the Middle East (possibly Syria and Jordan). While the European Commission—on behalf of the European Union—asked the United States for a clarification, the US has refused to confirm or deny the reports.^{[39][40][41][42][43]}

Extraordinary rendition flights through Europe were investigated over a number of years by the European Parliament and it held a temporary committee on the matter. The EU has also opposed the use of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and offered to host some former inmates when its closure was announced by the administration of US President Barack Obama.

Capital punishment

In the United States, capital punishment is a legal form of punishment, whereas all European Union member states have fully abolished it and consider its use to be a violation of fundamental human rights. This occasionally causes problems with EU-US relations, because it is illegal in the European Union to allow the extradition of a citizen to a country where the death penalty is a legal punishment, unless a guarantee is given that such punishment will not be used.

International Criminal Court

Positions in the United States concerning the International Criminal Court vary widely. The Clinton Administration signed the Rome Statute in 2000, but did not submit it for Senate ratification. The Bush Administration, the US administration at the time of the ICC's founding, stated that it would not join the ICC. The Obama Administration has subsequently re-established a working relationship with the court.^[44]

Iraq War

The Iraq War divided opinions within European nations and within the United States, with some states supporting of military action, and some against. The European public opinion was staunchly opposed to the war. This caused a major transatlantic rift, especially between the states led by France and Germany^[45][46] on the one hand, who were against military action, and the United States with United Kingdom, Italy, Spain and Poland.^[47]

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