“Revitalize the transatlantic partnership”
The European Union will propose to the United States that it take advantage of an opportunity that appears “once in a generation” and to conclude a new global alliance. The detailed project seeks to bury the tensions of the Trump era and respond to the “strategic challenge” represented by China, reports the Financial Times.
The EU project to revitalize the transatlantic partnership obtained by the Financial Times provides for new cooperation in all areas, from regulating the digital sector and combating the COVID-19 pandemic to combating deforestation.
The proposal, prepared by the European Commission, states that the EU-U.S. partnership needs “maintenance and renewal” for the democratic world to assert its interests in the face of “authoritarian powers” and “closed economies that exploit the openness on which our societies depend.”
The 11-page set of proposals, entitled “A New EU-US Agenda for Global Change,” includes a call for the EU and U.S. to bury persistent sources of transatlantic tension, such as Europe’s calls to tax U.S. technology giants.
The project proposes that the European Union and the United States join forces to shape the regulation of the digital sector, including common approaches to antitrust and data protection, cooperate in examining sensitive foreign investments, and work together to combat threats such as cyberattacks and hackers. Other parts of the proposal call for cooperation in the development and distribution of vaccines for COVID-19 and collaboration for the reform of the World Health Organization.
The plan reflects Brussels’ optimism and relief about the prospect of working with the new U.S. administration, but it also expresses the concern that years of poor transatlantic relations have allowed Beijing to take over geopolitical initiatives.
The document supports the idea of U.S. President-elect Joe Biden organizing a summit for democracies around the world and states that the new transatlantic agenda should be “the basis of a new global alliance of partners who share the same idea.”
The project, co-authored by the European Commission and the EU’s high representative for foreign policy, is expected to be submitted to national leaders for approval at a December 10-11 summit, and, if approved, would be followed by an EU-U.S. summit in the first half of 2021.
Source: https://rmx.news/article/article/eu-proposes-new-alliance-to-the-u-s-to-handle-china-challenge
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