3 December EU-US Summit

Date: 07/12/1995

TRANSATLANTIC ties now have an agenda, US President Bill Clinton, Commission President Jacques Santer and Spanish Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez agreed on behalf of EU member states. They approved joint action in the fields of security, trade, development aid, health and education. The EU and the US also agreed to closer cooperation on combating terrorism, drug trafficking and organised crime.

THE Transatlantic Free Trade Area (TAFTA) was omitted from the programme, but both sides agreed to a joint study on lowering remaining tariffs and eliminating tariffs on information technology equipment. US Trade Representative Mickey Kantor said that the new drive to increase EU-US trade would do as much to create jobs, raise wages and prompt economic growth as a TAFTA would. Both sides also agreed to work together to reinforce the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

BUSINESS wishes endorsed by the leaders included specific requests to collaborate on regulation, standards, public procurement rules and investment guarantees. Kantor said the list, drawn up by corporate executives with the help of the Transatlantic Policy Network (TPN) and the centrepiece of a 'business dialogue' in Seville last month, was “specific, concrete, and achievable”.

TRANSATLANTIC relations will be closely linked to how well EU-US cooperation works in Bosnia where tens of thousands of troops have been sent through NATO, Clinton said after the summit.

BOTH sides listed the case of Turkey as a “special concern” and agreed to work to strengthen economic and democratic reforms so as to promote its “further integration into the transatlantic community”.

EU leaders disagreed with Clinton's opinion on which stance to take towards Iran. While the EU has followed a policy of constructive engagement in Tehran - maintaining commercial ties and pursuing talks with moderates - Washington has cut links to the regime, which it says supports terrorism. Clinton argued that the EU method had not produced results. Gonzalez told Clinton that Spain would not join NATO's military command, even though a Spaniard is to take over as the alliance's secretary-general. Spain and France are both outside of the alliance's integrated military structure. But Spain is more 'in' than France as it sits on the alliance's defence and nuclear planning committees. The fact that outgoing Foreign Minister Javier Solana will now oversee a huge NATO deployment to Bosnia “presumes no change in status” of Spain within the alliance, insisted Gonzalez.