Date: 2 February 2004
 
Speakers: Erika Mann, MEP;
James Elles, MEP;
Hanns Glatz, Delegate of the Board of Management, Daimler-Chrysler;
Thierry Berthoud, Vice-President, Alcan Inc.;
Jim Cloos, Director, Directorate IV Transatlantic Relations, Council of the EU;
Alexander Schaub, Director-General, DG Internal Market, European Commission;
John Sammis, Minister Counsellor for Economic Affairs, US mission to the EU.
 
CEPS hosted a EU-US forum organised in co-operation with the Transatlantic Policy Network (TPN). The list of distinguished speakers included Erika Mann, MEP, James Elles, MEP, Alexander Schaub, Director General of DG Internal Market of the European Commission and Jim Cloos, Director of the Directorate Transatlantic Relations of the Council of the European Union.
 
Erika Mann, Member of the European Parliament and of the Socialist Group opened the meeting by highlighting the content of the paper prepared by the TPN "A Strategy to strengthen Transatlantic Partnership" and focusing in particular on the recommendations included in the ’ten points ten years’ plan drafted by the network. She explained that these were the result of eight months of intense debate within the TPN, that eventually led to a large consensus. Now the aim of the participants in the network was to embark in an outreach exercise that would make it possible to engage the highest possible number of stakeholders in the debate. It is in this context that the meeting at CEPS has to be seen. The German MEP also stressed that with regard to the first point of the action plan, namely the deepening and broadening of the Transatlantic market, the aspiration of the members of the network is to go beyond the narrow agenda of five areas (Financial Services and Capital Markets, civil aviation and competition policy) listed in the document, to implement a market also in different areas. Another key goal is to expand regulatory convergence. Efforts to this extent have already been made, as for example in the area of civil aviation, with the so-called open skies legislation, or in financial services, with the financial services action plan drawn up by the Commission. Steps forward have been made also in another area, that of digital economy, although in this field some obstacles remain, with regard in particular to data protection. Concerning competition, the aim of the drafters of the plan is to render the merger regulations more flexible, which should not prove too difficult, since there is already a long experience in working together on these issues. Also useful would be the creation of a formalised legal framework to settle bilateral trade disputes (which would make it superfluous to appeal before the WTO). Mann hinted that the fastest progress should come in the financial markets area, where a de facto common market already exists, although it is not officially recognised.
 
Jim Cloos began by pointing out that the Council has less of a role to play with regard to economic transatlantic co-operation, since most of the relevant issues are falling within the remit of the Commission. He also stressed that a dense network of (formal and informal) contacts already exists, and through the latter the two parties are working in close co-operation on many questions. Therefore it has to be acknowledged that the fact that certain problems remain unsolved is not necessarily due to the lack of mechanisms to deal with them, but is rather the result of a disagreement. Moreover, however important the bilateral relations with the US are, one should not forget the multilateral approach, by which countries such as China and Russia should be brought into the process. Otherwise, there is a risk that these countries would perceive the EU-US co-operation as a ganging up against them, thus endangering the mutual understanding that is so important for global trade. From this point of view, it is particularly inappropriate to speak of a G2.
 
Hanns Glatz provided some figures concerning the business activities of Daimler-Chrysler, with the aim of demonstrating that for the German carmaker the Transatlantic market is already a reality, if not a necessity. Indeed, the goal of the company is to remain competitive on the global scene, by integrating commercial vehicles production across the Atlantic. In this perspective, he stressed that the current system of regulating trade disputes between EU and US through sanctions is counterproductive because archaic. For instance, had steel tariffs been imposed on US producers by the Commission, these would have indirectly hit Europe harder than the US, by making car-production in the old continent absolutely un-economic. The German executive also called for the drafting of a report providing factual information and figures on the convenience of having an internal EU-US market, along the lines of the Cecchini report on the EU internal market in the seventies. To conclude, Glatz, underlined that the business community is not concerned with the choice of words that will be used to define this internal market, it would be up to the politicians to find a definition that could be acceptable to both parties without clashing with the global trade framework either. What really matters for business is that such an aim is achieved, since economic super-powers like China are looming, ready to take advantage of the lack of transatlantic cooperation.
 
Thierry Berthoud, Vice-President of Alcan Inc. took a similar stance, reminding the audience that also his company is active on both sides of the Atlantic and that it is therefore committed to furthering the process of EU-US co-operation not just by commenting on the proposals put forward by bodies like the TPN, but also by taking an active role.  Referring to the ten points of the TPN action plan, he noted that civil aviation in particular is a key market for Alcan, and so is the defence industry. Especially the latter is a field where one can appreciate the correctness of the TPN’s approach of bundling together economic, institutional and security issues. The Canada-based businessman then emphasised the importance of convergence of regulation, which in his view is a tremendous element of co-operation. Like other speakers, he made it clear that the added-value of dealing with problems within the multilateral framework of the WTO should not be neglected. By way of conclusion, Bertaud brought the attention of the audience to an issue that Alcan sees as vital and that is not included in the ten points listed by the TPN, namely the HIV-AIDS pandemic which affects African countries in particular. Since various European and American companies have factories in the continent, it would be against any ethic not to take action to tackle the problem.
 
John Sammis began in a conciliatory tone, explaining that since his arrival in Brussels he had completely shaken off the misconception that it would be difficult to advance transatlantic relations due to the complexity of the structure of the European counter-part(s). He pointed out that in just six months, much progress had been made on issues ranging from CSI to passenger data collection and the Galileo satellite navigation system. He agreed with Cloos on the importance of an efficient network of contacts, and mentioned as an example the results achieved after the passing of the Sox Oxley Act in the US. This brought to a close co-operation between officials from the DG Internal Market of the European Commission and representatives of the Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States. The American diplomat then pointed out the complementary nature of the work done in the two capitals: while Washington is focusing mostly on regulation, Brussels is concentrating its efforts on the completion of the (European) internal market. Concerning the disagreements that were mentioned by Cloos,  Sammis told the audience that one can not have the same views on every single issue, what is important is not to be mired in exactly the same disputes every year. Of the various points of the TPN’s plan, he singled out financial markets as an area were progress should be fast. In Sammis’ view, one should be more ambitious than just settling for the 2010 deadline. Overall it is sometimes positive to have visionary expectations and not just work on the basis of practicality and pragmatism. Finally, Sammis confirmed that also from an American point of view, the talk of a possible G2 (bringing together the EU and the US) is not realistic. It is paramount to keep working in a multilateral framework, seeing it not as a tool to use against each other but rather as an instrument to achieve progress.
 
Alexander Schaub acknowledged that the transatlantic relationship is currently not in good shape, and that goodwill is under strain. To overcome this situation, it is useful to keep in mind the large dimension of the common interest of the two regional powers. In the future, it will also be important to come up with new alternative fora for co-operation and exchange of views. In this perspective, the event hosted by CEPS could represent a model to cope with issues that have only recently come to the fore of transatlantic relations (for which the old mechanisms for co-operation would not be suitable). Globalisation has led to the emergence of new, unforeseen problems, but has also helped in realising the linkages between them and their magnitude. Schaub highlighted the problem of divergent rules between the EU and the US, a factor that becomes worrying when these turn out to be conflicting rules. From this point of view, the EU and US can now rely on their decade-long experience of dealing with divergences in a family living together. Indeed, having divergent rules should not be considered as a crime, but rather as a normal situation. Failing to harmonise everything is even less of a crime, as shown by the EU track-record, where the original enthusiasm for harmonisation has left the place to a larger application of the principle of subsidiarity. Even in those instances where it might be possible to harmonise, this might not be politically feasible. In this context, the concept of mutual recognition does not seem to be acceptable to the American officials, who appear to tolerate the idea of mutual equivalence better. The Internal market DG is currently engaged in a forward comparison of legislation on financial services on both sides of the Atlantic. This is necessary since every new legislative measure (currently there are 42 of them under scrutiny) approved by the Commission has the potential to increase divergence with the American rules regulating the same issue. Thus, planning of the workload is essential, and in the process the regulatory dialogue becomes a regulatory co-operation. Both sides should be conscious that the problems are the same. The financial scandals of the last eighteen months should tell us that there might be an interest in having identical rules or at least to regulate the same problems. By way of conclusion, and to stress once again the importance of close co-operation between the EU and the US, Schaub pointed out that until recently, Europe boasted 6 truly global companies, which are now down to 4 due to the complexity of the business environment.