News Release
June 26, 2004 EU/US Summit
No. 133/04
September 30, 2004
2004 COMMISSION LAUNCHES PUBLIC CONSULTATION ON STRENGTHENING
OF EU-US ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP
The European Commission launched today a public consultation of stakeholders
on how to enhance the Transatlantic
Economic Partnership. This is the first step towards implementing the “EU-US
Declaration on Strengthening our Economic Partnership" adopted at the
EU-US Summit
on 26 June 2004 in Ireland by Presidents Prodi
and Bush and Taoiseach Ahern. The Commission invites the business community, environmental
and consumer organisations, trade unions and other interested groups and individuals
to provide their views on the obstacles they face when trading or investing in
each other’s market and on future trade
and economic relations between the European Union and the United States.
The attached document contains a number of questions to stakeholders and invites
them to provide their ideas and proposals.
The public consultation will be held during the months of October and November
2004. Its results will be summarised, analysed and compared with the outcome of
a similar consultation held in parallel by the United States Administration. Subsequently,
policy options will be elaborated by both sides, feeding into a joint forward-looking
strategy to be presented by the EU-US Senior Level Group of officials to the next
EU-US Summit in 2005.
This consultation is aimed at bringing forward new ideas on how to further transatlantic
economic integration, to enhance the flow of investment as well as trade, to spur
innovation and job creation and to identify and overcome obstacles to the realisation
of the competitive potential of our economies.
The EU and the US form the largest trade and investment relationship in the world
and are each other’s largest trade and investment partners. The volume of trade
in 2003 comprised more than € 600 billion worth of goods and services and, in
terms of investment, EU firms hold € 890 billion of direct investment in the US
while the US companies hold € 650 billion in the EU: a total of over € 1.5 trillion.
The consultation is open until 30 November 2004 via the European Commission's
Trade and External Relations’ websites. A presentation, a link to the questionnaire,
available in all EU official languages, as well as more information on EU-US relations
can be found at:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/external_relations/us/intro/index.htm;
http://europa.eu.int/comm/trade/issues/bilateral/countries/usa/index_en.htm.
The questionnaire is provided by the "Your Voice in Europe" Internet
site, which is the relaunched one-stop shop giving access to all Commission consultations
and their results across all policy areas.
http://europa.eu.int/yourvoice/consultations/index_en.htm#open.
To access the results of the 2004 EU-US Summit, go to:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/external_relations/us/sum06_04/conclusions.htm
or to http://www.eurunion.org/partner/summit/20040625&26sum.htm.
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Press Contacts:
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Anthony Gooch
202-862-9523
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Maeve O'Beirne
202-862-9549
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