In the last year, relations between the European Union and the
United States registered a leap forward: the February 2005 visit
to Brussels by President Bush marked the launching of closer cooperation,
distinguished by intense and frequent consultations at all levels.
The Washington Summit of June 2005 determined two key sectors
in EU-USA cooperation:
- Talks for the promotion of democracy and human rights, with
a joint declaration on “Democracy, Freedom, and Human Rights”;
- Strengthening of the economic partnership, with a joint declaration
on the so-called “Economic Initiative”, whose work
program was approved in the Ministerial reunion held in Brussels
the following November. It covers numerous sectors: regulations
and standards; the capital market; innovations and technical development
(basic research, space, nanotechnologies, higher education and
professional training, access to internet technology, development
of innovation technologies, cyber-security, etc.); travel and
transportation safety (especially the abolishing of tourist visas
to the United States for all European citizens); energy; and protection
of intellectual property.
The next Summit appointment, in Vienna in June 2006, besides
determining the position in this new phase of intense transatlantic
collaboration, will also register new concrete results: we are
close to the conclusion of the EU-USA Agreements on air travel
services and on higher education and professional training.
With Canada, the main challenge will be represented by the continuation
of negotiations and the wished-for finalization of the Agreement
on the strengthening of Trade and Investments. The EU-Canada Summit
should take place in the second semester of 2006, under the Finnish
Presidency.
Italy believes a measured development of transatlantic relations
is fundamental, in order to overcome some differences of a commercial
nature that have, in the last few years, had a disproportionate
impact (especially in EU-USA relations), considering the fundamental
bonds and shared values that unite the two shores of the Atlantic.
