Key Notes

Transatlantic relations

Consolidating transatlantic relations and developing these relations into an equal partnership are among the EPP-ED’s main foreign policy concerns.

The Group’s views on this were particularly clearly stated in the report by James Elles (EPP-ED/UK) on reinforcing the transatlantic relationship. It pointed out first that the Transatlantic Partnership over the last 50 years had been decisive in providing security, stability and the spread of democracy throughout the Euro-Atlantic region and then that the central common strategic interest of both the EU and the USA remained the security of our peoples, peace, stability and justice, the spread of democracy, modern governance, open societies and markets, human rights and the rule of law around the world.

After the Group had succeeded with this report once again in leading opinion in Parliament in the area of transatlantic relations and securing a broad majority for its position, it was able shortly afterwards to further develop and consolidate its position in Parliament’s resolution on a renewed transatlantic relationship for the third millennium

The resolution stresses that ‘a strong Europe is a precondition for a well-balanced partnership based on equality’ and that the EU will only be recognised as a partner if it ‘can accompany its economic strength with a real common foreign and security policy and that this requires the extension of qualified majority voting in the Council to services in external trade and the field of the Foreign and Security Policy, the establishment of a European common diplomatic service, enhanced cooperation in defence policy and stronger and more efficient use of military capabilities’.

It also ‘urges an effective reshaping of a genuine and well-balanced in-depth dialogue with the United States with a view to reinvigorating the transatlantic community of values and developing action better suited to today’s world situation’ and based on respect for human rights and the principles of the United Nations Charter.

In this connection, the resolution expresses concern that the EU-US partnership could be undermined by certain political trends in the USA which emphasise ‘unilateral, and often military, solutions to global problems at the expense of the traditions of more than 50 years of US internationalism and multilateralism’.

The Group and Parliament advocate commitment to further developing the partnership ‘from a transatlantic community of values to an effective transatlantic community of action by developing a collaborative strategy and action in contexts such as post-conflict cooperation and nation-building in Afghanistan and Iraq’, improving relations with the Arab world, promoting the Middle East Peace Process and combating nuclear proliferation.

In conclusion, the resolution underlines that only with wider involvement at all levels of the Congress, the EP and national parliaments will it be possible really to enhance the whole process of deepening and broadening transatlantic relations, and therefore advocates, in addition to strengthening trade relations by creating a ‘Transatlantic Market’, that the existing interparliamentary exchange should be gradually transformed into a ‘Transatlantic Assembly’.

In the next legislature, the EPP-ED Group will seek to further consolidate the transatlantic relationship as one of the EU’s core strategies and to develop it into a partnership of equals. That means above all that the debate on a common European and US strategy must be reinvigorated, with the emphasis on issues such as rebuilding and restoring state structures in Iraq, as well as general issues such as how best to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction, how arms exports and the spread of conventional weapons can be controlled, how the International Criminal Court can be allowed to function unimpeded and how a common Euro-Atlantic strategy might deal with repressive dictatorships and crumbling states.

NATO will play a vital role in consolidating and expanding transatlantic relations. After the shock of 11 September 2001 the Alliance has changed and been renewed as has rarely happened before. The Cold War alliance with its old certainties, based on an ever-present threat, is a thing of the past. Defence of the realm in the usual sense is not a priority any more. This century has more diffuse dangers. The EU’s new security strategy takes full account of this fact. The Europeans, in contrast to the USA, seek to base their crisis prevention strategy primarily on non-military means and allow the United Nations to play a decisive role. But in their analysis of the new threats and in their readiness to intervene militarily as a last resort to solve conflict situations, the Europeans have meanwhile come much closer to the American view of security issues. In parallel, the US side has come to see that peace in Iraq or in Afghanistan cannot be won by military force alone. To ensure stable relationships everywhere, America needs partners and allies. The future of these two countries will unavoidably provide an opportunity for the rebirth of NATO and the reinvigoration of transatlantic relationships, and we should grasp this opportunity.


Andreas-Renatus Hartmann, Advisor