The Relationship Between the European Union and the United States Essay (Critical Writing)

Introduction

The European Union is generally a group of European countries, and/or nations that work together in the quest of improving the lives of their respective citizens and build a better world¹. Cooper describes the EU as not a federation like the United States or other federations in the world; neither is it a state replacing already existing states, nor an organization for co-operations between governments, just like the United Nations².

Over the last decade, EU’s success has been owed a lot to the unique way in which it generally works. It is unique because the member countries that form the EU have exclusively remained independent sovereign countries who, however, agree to pool their diverging sovereignties to gain strengths and global influences that none of them could have on their own³.

This paper tries to discern the relationship that exists between the EU and the United States. It will focus on the political, economic and foreign relation that exists between the two.

The historic relationship that exists between the United States and the EU is a very unique and crucial relationship. Both the EU and the U.S. have a deep sense of widely shared values and a strong belief in democracy as a way of governance, adherence to principles of the rule of law, respect for human rights and the market economy.

Most of these values are fundamentally entrenched in governance practices of both the EU and the US. Moreover, deep ties between the two are not only evident in the political and economic spheres, but also in issues such as promoting the use of clean energy, combating climate change, aiding the developing world in dealing with poverty and terrorism among many other issues.

The EU and the U.S. have also been at the forefront of ensuring access of adequate healthcare with key investments by the two in fighting the spread of infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS. These are but some of the main areas that the EU and the United States have shown deep co-operation over the last half of the last century to date.

Arguably, it is suffice to say that the United States and the EU are close allies. As has been stated above, their relationship goes beyond mere economic and political ties. Over the last century to date, the EU and the U.S. have increasingly been seen to be sharing the opportunities and responsibilities facing global leadership⁴.

Through co-operation, the EU and the U.S. have indeed been playing an important role in promoting global norms that helped bring to an end of such things as the Cold War that consequently encouraged practices that were geared towards global market integration and democratization.

However, just like any relationship between two partners, various differences do exists between the EU and the U.S. Cooper points out some of the differing positions between the two partners such as on the issues of the legality of the death penalty and certain trade agreements.

Political Relations

Political relations between the US and EU are hard to discern. They vary from one member country to another in the EU. This is because; member countries of the European Union do maintain their independent sovereignty even though they are still members of the EU. For instance, the US-French relations are stronger today in the Obama administration than in the past.

This is a trend that can be witnessed all over the European Union mainly because the United States is spending much more time to focus on strengthening relationships in the region unlike during past administrations⁵.

Economic Relations

According to Cooper, the economic relationship between the European Union and the United States is currently the largest is the world⁶. These is majorly because the current economic relationship between the EU and the U.S has gradually been evolving since the World War II, when the European Community just comprised 6 countries to the present day 27 member European Union.

The EU member countries and the U.S. are said to have roughly equivalent levels of economic development. Undoubtedly, they are among the most highly advanced regions in the world. Together, they produce the world’s wealthiest nations, and consequently produce the world’s most educated populations.

Furthermore, these two partners, with a few exceptions in the EU, produce major technological advancements in the world annually. All this makes trade trends have a deep nexus since the EU and the U.S. find themselves trading in similar products and services. This further connects the relation between the industries in the two regions.

Cooper further suggests that the EU and U.S. economic relationship has dominated the world economy virtually due to the sheer size of the combined economies⁷. He further notes that a combined population of the U.S. and the EU is close to 800 million people who are generating a combined GDP that is equivalent to 40% of the world’s GDP in 2010. Basically, what this means is that the EU –U.S. economic relationship has EU –U.S. economic relationship has a ‘clout’ over all other global economic ties.

The EU as a single unit is reported to be the largest trading partner of the United States in merchandise⁸. For instance, in 2010, the EU accounted for 18.7% of total U.S. exports and 15.4% of total U.S. imports⁹. The United States is again the major and largest non-EU trading partner of the whole European Union¹⁰.

Chief among the top U.S. exports to the EU are aircrafts, computers and their accessories. On the other hand, the EU mostly exports cars, machineries such as gas turbines and organic chemicals among many other products to the United States. The EU is also the largest trading partner when it comes to trade in services.

Foreign trade and investment statistics that have been produced over the past century have indicated a stronger and interdependent EU-U.S. economic relationship.

This relationship will further grow in its significance especially due to advancements in the global technology sectors and other forces affecting globalisation. As more and more countries are joining the European Union, the United States is also finding itself adding its list of trading partners since more trading barriers are being eradicated due to membership of these countries to the EU¹¹.

Foreign Policy Relations

Close relations between the EU and the United States have formed a vital component of the foreign relation’s policies of both partners. They have consequently played a key role in how global developments have been shaped over past years. Furthermore, the election of President Obama and the implementation of the Lisbon Treaty have further created a vital window of opportunity for both partners as far as foreign policy relations are concerned¹².

Unlike in the Bush administration, what is different under the Obama presidency is that he captured a big popularity in Europe that were critical in the healing of divisions in relations that were as a result of the Iraq war. Moreover, through the creation of the European Council President and the new High Representative for External Affairs offices in the EU, there is seen a move by the EU beyond mere institutional belief to actual foreign policy identity.

When President Obama was elected as the president of the United States in 2008, his first main duty in re-shaping America’s foreign policy was to restore a multilateral approach in the way the U.S. solved international problems. Partnership and co-operation was his main emphasis to nations that wanted to protect world security and advancements in humanity¹³.

The EU had always argued over the years of the Bush administration that through global governance, then world would find it possible to get solutions that would effectively deal with global challenges. Therefore, the Obama administration was from the beginning seen as have a close agenda to the perspectives that the EU believed in as far as foreign relation is concerned.

Personal Relationship between the U.S. and the UK

President George W. Bush Snr. once referred the special personal relationship between the UK and the US as the rock upon which dictators of the last century fell¹⁴. By this reference, he was trying to show the importance that the personal relationship that the UK and U.S. had in dealing with communism and fascism that had rocked the 20^th century.

This just shows one of the many aspects that the two nations have heard a personal and very close relationship at the envy of many other nations. For instance, the sharing of the common law tradition is one of the historical pillars that keep the two nations close to each other.

Trade is the other factor that really cements this personal relationship. Both the U.S. and the UK are very great and old trading partners. Alcaro and Alessandri additionally state that both countries have major investments in each other’s economies than any other country in the world, and they are further reported to be leading in cross-border mergers and acquisitions¹⁵.

Another area that has made their relationship more personal is the unique diplomatic and security partnership that the two nations have formed. Ever since World War II, the U.S. and the UK have displayed a deep collaboration in each other’s defence and national security fields.

However, in the recent past, many British officials who are involved in UK’s defence and foreign relations have taken a relaxed position on whether the UK can play a leading role in European defence¹⁶. In the early 2000s, most of these officials would argue that the UK would still work on its defence and foreign policies at the same time benefiting from access to U.S. intelligence while continuing like any other EU member country in adhering to the European Common Foreign and Security Policy stipulations¹⁷.

Other EU member countries were convinced that if Europe was to become a good player in foreign and defence policies, then the UK would have to cut its close ties with the U.S. if she wanted to be a leading player in EU’s defence policy. This had undoubtedly placed the UK at a very awkward position especially after the Iraq invasion by the United States in May 2003.

At this time, EU member countries that were not at good terms with the U.S. found themselves colliding with the UK who also a played a big part of the Iraq invasion. UK’s image and influence was majorly dented since it was believed that Britain’s influence in global affairs was dependent on the U.S.

Russia’s role in the EU-US Relation

Just after the Cold War, both the US and Western European leaders made an agreement that it was good for Russia to be integrated into the newly emerging world order¹⁸. This decision was made on the assumption that the costs incurred in sidelining and isolating Russia were going to be higher than those of allowing here in the new order.

Alcaro and Alessandri further add that Russia was desperate at that time and saw an engagement with the west as a viable option if it was to play a significant part in the new era¹⁹. Unfortunately, Russia’s relationship with the western world between the 1990s to the 2000s became more hard and difficult.

Russia does not mainly share the close values that the EU and the United States do share. This makes it more isolated from the economic and political benefits that these two partners enjoy. This is especially detested by post Balkan countries which are either in the European Union or are in the process of joining the union.

Most of them would demand a change of governance of Russian affairs so as to create a good trading atmosphere between the U.S.-EU relations. Russia also seems to have a lack of choice in the type of allies and partners which limits it from fruitful EU-U.S. relations²⁰

References

Alcaro, R. & Alessandri, E. 2009, ‘Re-setting US-EU-Russia Relations: Moving beyond Rhetoric’, Document IAI 09, vol.12, no.32, pp.13-48. Web.

Cooper , W. 2011, ‘EU-U.S. Economic Ties: Framework, Scope, and Magnitude. CRS Report for Congress’, Congressional Research service, 7-5700. Web.

European Commission 2010, ‘Mapping the Future of the EU-US Partnership: Policy and Research Perspectives’, A Synthetic Overview of the Proceedings. Web.

European Union Institute for Security Studies 2009, ‘European Perspectives on the new American Foreign Policy Agenda’, The EU and the World in 2009, Report No.4. Web.

European Commission 2007, ‘How the European Union Works: Your Guide to the EU Institutions’, Directorate General for Communication Publications, B-1049 Brussels. Web.

Grant, P., 2000, Democracy in America, United States: Hackett.

Rothkopf, D. 2011, ‘The Special Relationship between the EU and the United States’, The Independent, Web.

U.S. Census Bureau News 2011, ‘U.S. Goods Trade: Imports and Exports by Related-Parties 2011’, Census.gov, Web.

Footnotes

1. European Commission, How the European Union Works, 3.
2. Cooper, EU-U.S. Economic Ties: Framework, Scope, and Magnitude, 5.
3. European Commission, How the European Union Works, 3
4. Ibid.
5. Rothkopf, The Special Relationship between the EU and the United States, 18.
6. Cooper , EU-U.S. Economic Ties: Framework, Scope, and Magnitude, 14.
7. Ibid., 1.
8. Ibid., 3.
9. U.S. Census Bureau News, U.S. Goods Trade: Imports and Exports by Related Parties 2011, 5.
10. Cooper , EU-U.S. Economic Ties: Framework, Scope, and Magnitude, 4.
11. Cooper , EU-U.S. Economic Ties: Framework, Scope, and Magnitude, 14.
12. European Commission, Mapping the Future of the EU-US Partnership: Policy and Research Perspectives, 7.
13. European Union Institute for Security Studies, European Perspectives on the new American Foreign Policy Agenda, 10.
14. Alcaro, R and Alessandri, Re-setting US-EU-Russia Relations: Moving beyond Rhetoric, 17.
15. Ibid., 7.
16. Grant, Democracy in America, 12.
17. Grant, Democracy in America,36.
18. Alcaro, R and Alessandri, Re-setting US-EU-Russia Relations: Moving beyond Rhetoric, 13.
19. Ibid., 7.
20. Ibid., 23.