MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION on the forthcoming EU-US Summit and the 4th Meeting of the Transatlantic Economic Council
19.10.2009
pursuant to Rule 110(2) of the Rules of Procedure
Sarah Ludford, Sharon Bowles, Wolf Klinz, Olle Schmidt, Johannes Cornelis van Baalen, Marietje Schaake on behalf of the ALDE Group
See also joint motion for a resolution RC-B7-0095/2009
B7‑0096/2009
European Parliament resolution on the forthcoming EU-US Summit and the 4th Meeting of the Transatlantic Economic Council
The European Parliament,
– having regard to its resolutions of 8 May 2008 on the Transatlantic Economic Council and of 26 March 2009 on the state of transatlantic relations in the aftermath of the US elections,
– having regard to the outcome of the EU-US Summit held on 5 April 2009 in Prague,
– having regard to the Joint Statement and progress report adopted at the third Transatlantic Economic Council (TEC) meeting on 16 October 2008, and to the Joint Statement adopted at the Transatlantic Legislators' Dialogue Meeting in April 2009 in Prague,
– having regard to Rule 110(2) of its Rules of Procedure,
A. whereas the EU and the US play key roles in the world's politics and economy, and share responsibility for promoting peace, respect for human rights and stability and for tackling various global dangers and challenges, such as the deep economic crisis, climate change, nuclear proliferation, terrorism, energy security and the eradication of poverty and attainment of other MDG,
B. whereas in a global, complex and changing world, it is in the interests of both partners, the EU and the US, to strengthen their dialogue and coordination – also from a strategic perspective – in order to shape the international environment together, and to confront in unison common threats and challenges on the basis of international law and multilateral institutions, in particular the UN system, and to invite other partners to cooperate in this effort,
C. whereas the EU and the US have a strategic role as regards global economic challenges, as their gross domestic product (GDP) represents more than half of global GDP, and the two partners have the world's strongest bilateral trade and investment partnership, accounting for almost 40% of world trade,
D. whereas the financial and economic crisis has rapidly turned into a jobs crisis with severe social consequences, and the transatlantic partners share responsibility for tackling the social dimension of the economic crisis,
E. whereas the European Parliament advocates the completion of a barrier-free transatlantic market by 2015, the achievement of which will be a central means of relaunching economic growth and recovery; whereas moreover joint EU-US leadership is needed for the successful completion of the Doha Development Round,
F. whereas, once the foreign policy tools of the Lisbon Treaty come into effect, the EU will be able to play a stronger and more coherent role on the international scene and whereas it is important that the role of legislators is duly reflected in the TEC process and that the priorities of the European Parliament are adequately taken into account,
G. whereas the good cooperation between the EU and US in the field of civil aviation may be jeopardised by recent initiatives on inspections of foreign repair stations, antitrust exemptions and air carrier citizenship,
H. whereas the EU and the US will be confronted with rising global energy consumption and the requirement to implement global commitments to combat climate change, and whereas the new standards and measures to increase energy efficiency should neither create new obstacles to transatlantic trade nor reduce the security and safety of fissile material,
EU-US Summit and the Reinforcement of the TEC
1. Reaffirms that EU-US relations are the most important strategic partnership for the EU and insists on the importance of the EU and the US Administration's intensifying their strategic dialogue, cooperation and coordination when dealing with global challenges and regional conflicts; calls on the Commission to submit, after the Summit, a communication on a strategic EU-US partnership;
2. Considers it necessary that at the EU-US Summit both partners take the leading role on the implementation of the G-20 commitments; calls therefore for coordination of the US reform package for the financial sector and the current EU legislative reforms, including the financial supervisory structure, and calls on both partners to strengthen cooperation between legislative, regulatory and supervisory authorities and also for reinforcement of cooperation in the modernisation of the IMF;
3. Underlines the importance of EU-US cooperation in reaching an international agreement at COP-15 in Copenhagen in December 2009; urges the EU Presidency, at the EU-US Summit, to seek an ambitious US commitment and solicit US cooperation in promoting links between the EU ETS and regional or federal trading schemes in the US;
4. Insists that, once the Lisbon Treaty enters into force, the institutional mechanisms of EU-US relations should be strengthened in line with its Resolution of 26 March 2009;
5. Calls on the EU and the US to agree at the forthcoming Summit on a reinforced transatlantic partnership to deal with common global challenges, in particular with regard to non-proliferation and disarmament, counterterrorism, climate change, respect for human rights, facing pandemics and achieving the Millennium Development Goals;
6. Reasserts the importance for both partners of developing common strategies towards Iran, towards Iraq, and towards Afghanistan and Pakistan; reaffirms the importance of common approaches regarding Russia, China, India and Latin America;
7. Reaffirms that the success of the Middle East Peace Process is one of the most important priorities for the EU and the US and calls on the EU and US to jointly promote active Quartet intervention in the search for common ground as a basis for a peaceful solution; calls on the Summit to examine possible ways of reaching out to the Arab world and to Muslim populations in Europe and the US;
8. Underlines that the completion of a barrier-free transatlantic market is a vital instrument for shaping globalisation and for dealing with the global economic and social crises;
9. Is convinced that the Transatlantic Economic Council (TEC) constitutes the most appropriate mechanism for managing the transatlantic economic relationship; urges the partners to use the full potential of the TEC in order to overcome the existing barriers to economic integration and to achieve a barrier-free transatlantic market by 2015, which will be a positive response to the current economic and social crises;
10. Considers that transatlantic cooperation on energy efficiency and technology (including 'green energy') and on energy regulatory areas can be dealt with within the TEC; insists that transatlantic cooperation on energy security should constitute one of the central issues to be addressed regularly within the Transatlantic Political Council (TPC), whose creation was proposed by the European Parliament in its Resolution of 26 March 2009;
11. Calls on the Commission to set out a detailed road map of existing obstacles which need to be removed with the aim of meeting the 2015 target; recalls the study which the European Parliament authorised and financed in its 2007 budget; wonders why neither of these documents has so far been released by the Commission despite repeated requests by the European Parliament for it to do so; sets 15 November 2009 as the final date for their publication;
12. Believes that the inclusion of the social dimension in the institutional structure of the Transatlantic Agenda by means of the setting-up of the Transatlantic Labour Dialogue (TALD) and the Transatlantic Environment Dialogue (TAED) may contribute to further transatlantic economic and social integration; is of the opinion that these new pillars of the Transatlantic Agenda could also participate in the Advisory Board of the TEC, provided that legislators are fully involved in the TEC;
13. Believes that transatlantic economic cooperation must be made more accountable, transparent and predictable and that schedules of meetings, agendas, road maps and progress reports should be regularly published and immediately posted on a website; proposes to hold a annual debate on the progress made on issues discussed within the TEC, as well as its structure;
14. Calls on the US to allow the full and effective implementation of the first-stage EU-US aviation agreement and of the EU-US aviation safety agreement; reminds both the Commission and the US authorities that failure to conclude a second-stage agreement could lead to the cancellation of the first-stage agreement by some Member States; calls on the US to avoid any measures which work against reinforced cooperation such as those on foreign repair stations, anti-trust exemptions and air carrier citizenship mentioned in House Resolution 915;
15. Hopes that at the Summit the two parties will agree that a successful conclusion of the Doha Round should include measures to avoid volatility of agricultural prices and food shortages; stresses the need to take into consideration recent CAP reforms and hopes to see similar adjustments made to the US Farm Bill; is confident that, through continuous dialogue, issues affecting mutual trade in agricultural products can be tackled before they come before WTO dispute bodies;
16. Believes nonetheless that the impact on commercial activities of actions taken by governments in this context on matters such as privacy and data protection standards, biometric specifications, aviation security, travel documentation and exchanges of passenger information should not be neglected by the TEC;
Forthcoming Meeting of the Transatlantic Economic Council
The Role of the TLD in the TEC
17. Reiterates its call on the leadership of the EU and the US, as well as the co-chairs of the TEC, to take account of the crucial role of legislators for the success of the TEC; urges them to involve the representatives of the TLD fully and directly in the TEC, as legislators share with their respective executive branches responsibility for the enactment and oversight of many TEC decisions;
18. Believes that it is essential to ensure that the most appropriate members of Congress and the European Parliament are brought into the Legislators' Dialogue and the TEC process, in order to prevent legislation with an unintended impact on transatlantic trade and investment;
Economic and Financial Crises
19. Underlines the role of the TEC in promoting and ensuring a coordinated US-EU regulatory response to the crises, in particular regarding alternative investment funds, financial market infrastructure (especially regarding Over-The-Counter(OTC) derivatives markets), capital requirements, tax havens and cross-border insolvency resolution; calls on the TEC to examine the coordination of and best practice with regard to remuneration policy for financial institutions, ensuring that remuneration be based on long-term results, thus reducing risk exposure;
20. Calls on the TEC to insist that the US authorities implement Basel II, taking into account changes to the EU capital requirements directives, welcomes the proposal by the US Government to regulate all OTC derivatives and its work on a central clearing house for complex structured products, and calls on the TEC to examine how to promote a coordinated approach concerning treatment of asset classes and corporations as well as infrastructure equivalence;
21. Calls on the TEC to ensure that the US authorities take into account EU regulation of alternative investment fund managers (AIFM Directive) when regulating such vehicles, in order to avoid regulatory arbitrage;
22. Urges the TEC to address the issue of 'too big to fail institutions' and supports the G-20 proposals for 'living will' contingency plans for systemically important cross-border institutions; considers that systemically important financial institutions could be subject to stricter disclosure requirements such as limitations on commercial confidentiality, in the same way as dominant companies can be under EU competition policy;
23. Supports the G-20 call to speed up convergence of accounting standards; urges the TEC to call on the FASB and the IASB to agree a single set of high-quality global accounting standards and complete their convergence project by June 2011; underlines that the IASB should continue its governance reforms;
24. Urges the TEC to insist that the US authorities abide by their road map for requiring US domestic users to apply IFRS; recalls its request that, until the US adopts IFRS, the SEC should recognise IFRS, as adopted by the European Union, as being equivalent to US GAAP; urges the TEC to promote the development of a country-by-country breakdown of reporting for multinational groups;
25. Hopes that the TEC will urge changes in US insurance supervision that will enable the EU to recognise the US insurance supervisory regime as equivalent under the conditions set out in the Solvency II Directive; is of the opinion that the initiative to set up an Office of National Insurance would improve EU-US cooperation; calls on the TEC to ensure that the US authorities make progress on federal level insurance supervision by separating, if necessary, tax and other issues from the pure supervision aspect;
26. Welcomes the expansion of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information (GFTEI) and sees it as a promising step that all 87 countries in the GFTEI have agreed to adopt the OECD standard on tax information sharing; urges the TEC to ensure that the EU and the US show their common global leadership by ensuring that the necessary incentives, including sanctions, are in place in March 2010, and to quickly implement, with all parties, a programme of peer review to assess progress, but deems that this framework must be reinforced to combat tax evasion and avoidance; stresses that automatic information should be the standard in all transnational tax matters;
Intellectual Property
27. Calls on the forthcoming TEC meeting to promote strategic transatlantic cooperation on the protection of intellectual property with full respect for the fundamental and civil rights of citizens; underlines that the spread of technologies must not distort the system of intellectual property protection, which guarantees the ability to take financial and business risks inherent in the innovation process;
28. Reminds the TEC that the information society is a crucial pillar of the transatlantic economic area based on access to knowledge and on the protection of digital content by means of a rigorous and effective system of protection of copyright and related rights, and further reaffirms that such protection must promote innovation;
Consumer Protection
29. Calls on the TEC to promote joint actions to ensure that third countries, particularly China, raise their production standards to meet EU/US safety requirements, in particular for toys, and to ensure strict enforcement, on both sides of the Atlantic, of safety laws regarding products, particularly toys, as well as stronger national inspections;
30. Calls on the Commission to develop within the TEC stronger and more effective cross-border enforcement cooperation systems, with the objective of linking the EU 'RAPEX' alert system on consumer products which pose a serious risk to consumers to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission alert system, and integrating the activities of the Consumer Protection Cooperation (CPC) Network with those of the US authorities;
31. Proposes that the TEC endorse the adoption of a binding cooperation instrument which would structure and facilitate the sharing of information on product safety and the development of a common programme of cooperative actions;
32. Calls on the Commission to accelerate, with a view to the forthcoming TEC meeting and EU-US Summit, its work on a much-delayed bilateral Enforcement Cooperation Agreement extending to the US, its enforcement activities within the framework of the EU Consumer Protection Cooperation Regulation and the US Safe Web Act;
33. Calls on the Commission to work with US counterparts in order to allow the TEC to examine ways of enhancing consumer protection with due regard for the digital rights of consumers, as well as working together on rules for defective goods;
Bilateral Trade - Customs Matters, Market Surveillance and Trade Security
34. Calls on the TEC to promote the strengthening of cooperation between the EU and the US customs and market surveillance authorities, in order to prevent dangerous products, in particular dangerous toys, from reaching consumers;
35. Calls on the TEC to voice EU concerns over the US unilateral legislative measure regarding the 100% scanning of US-bound maritime cargo containers, as adopted by the US Congress; believes that the TEC could usefully organise seminars on the 100% scanning issue in Brussels and Washington, in order to foster a deeper understanding between US and EU legislators and to promote an early and mutually acceptable resolution of this problem; calls on the Commission to evaluate, for the forthcoming TEC meeting, the potential costs of this measure to business and to the EU economy, as well as the potential impact on customs operations;
36. Is resolved to continue to call on the US legislature – and calls on the Commission to do likewise within the TEC – to reconsider the 100% container scanning obligation, and to develop cooperation with the US based on risk management, including mutual recognition of the EU and US Trade Partnership Programmes, in accordance with the SAFE Framework of Standards of the World Customs Organisation;
Mutual Recognition and Standardisation
37. Calls on the Commission to pursue, in the light of the forthcoming TEC meeting, the formal adoption of procedures for the mutual recognition of declarations of conformity for products subject to mandatory third-party testing, in particular for ICT and electrical equipment, to insist on the mutual recognition of legal units of measurement, in particular acceptance of metric-only labelling of EU products in the US, to explore standardisation with US authorities and to coordinate internationally;
Environmental and Public Health issues
38. Considers it to be of the utmost importance to engage in dialogue in the TEC on novel foods and the use of new technologies in food production; emphasises concerns regarding cloning in animal breeding;
39. Welcomes the fact that the US Government has recognised the need to reform its Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA); calls on the EU and US to cooperate so as to establish a regulatory system in the US that brings about a level of protection compatible with REACH;
Energy, Industry and Science
40. Calls for cooperation within the TEC on all matters affecting the regulatory environment for industries, following the approach of the EU 'Small Business Act' – thinking small first – when considering legislation with a transatlantic impact;
41. Encourages the TEC to develop cooperation towards a Common Energy Strategy which supports diversification and promotes an eco-efficient economy, in order to increase security of supply, and encourages the TEC to help seek converging sustainability criteria for biofuels;
42. Urges the TEC to stimulate cooperation in research to better exploit the potential of the extended EU-US Science and Technology Agreement;
International Trade
43. Considers that access to third-country markets is a common concern and interest for both the EU and the US; is convinced that the TEC can play an important role in fostering a common approach by the EU and the US in their trade relations with third countries; calls on the TEC to work towards a more common approach to new free trade agreements on the part of the US and the EU, with a view to harmonising such agreements;
44. Calls on the TEC to deal with the legal framework and technical standards in order to remedy unclear legal conditions and in this context to consider the issues of contracts, duties and legal security in the US;
Judicial and Police Cooperation, Visas
45. Hopes that the EU-US Ministerial meeting scheduled on 28 October 2009 in Washington DC will adopt a Joint Declaration on Police and Judicial Cooperation, covering in particular cyber-security;
46. Recalls its determination to fight terrorism and its firm belief in the need to strike the right balance between security measures and the protection of civil liberties and fundamental rights, while ensuring the utmost respect for privacy and data protection; reaffirms that necessity and proportionality are key principles without which the fight against terrorism will never be effective;
47. Believes that a sound legal and political framework is needed for strong cooperation between the EU and the US in matters related to Justice, Freedom and Security and that a stronger partnership involving the parliamentary and democratic dimension is essential to address effectively common challenges like the fight against terrorism and organised crime without prejudice to fundamental rights and the rule of law, judicial cooperation in criminal matters and police cooperation, management of migration and protection of the right to seek asylum, and promotion of visa-free movement of all bona fide citizens between the two areas;
48. In this respect, recalls that the European Union is based on the rule of law and that all transfers of European personal data to third countries for security purposes should respect procedural guarantees and defence rights and comply with data-protection legislation at national and European level;
49. Recalls that, within the transatlantic framework of the EU-US agreement on legal assistance, which will enter into force on 1 January 2010, Article 4 provides for access to be granted to targeted financial data upon request, through national state authorities, and that this might constitute a sounder legal basis for the transfer of SWIFT data than the proposed interim agreement;
50. Notes that an interim agreement on the transfer of such data is being negotiated between the EU and the US which would be valid for an intermediate period through a sunset clause not exceeding 12 months, and that a new agreement, negotiated without prejudice to the procedure to be followed under the Lisbon Treaty, will have to fully involve the EP and national parliaments and ensure the conditions set out in Paragraph 3 of its resolution of 17 September 2009;
51. Welcomes the recent extension of the visa waiver programme to another seven EU Member States; urges the US, however, to lift the visa regime for the remaining Member States and to treat all EU citizens equally and on the basis of full reciprocity; is concerned about the planned introduction of administrative fees for the granting of ESTA authorisations to EU citizens and calls on the Commission to treat this as a priority matter with the US administration;
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52. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the governments and parliaments of the Member States, the US Congress, the co-chairs of the Transatlantic Legislators' Dialogue, the Transatlantic Economic Council co-chairs and its secretariat.