eunbil · GT0N1432 · 2006-07-07 00:00:00 — 2006 EU-US Summit in On 21 2006, EU-US Leaders met in to respond to the concerns of our citizens for peace, security, stability and prosperity in an increasingly globalised world. Issues and priorities have been set out in a general summit declaration which is forward looking and contains concrete examples of how both sides will work together in the future, including in new areas of cooperation such as energy security. The main focus of the Summit was on foreign policy (Middle East, , , Latin ), the fight against terrorism and , WTO DDA, investment flows and intellectual property, energy and climate change, and on advancing EU-US cooperation on promoting and reinforcing democratisation. As to economy and trade, Leaders welcomed the 2006 Summit Progress Report on the Transatlantic Economic Initiative. This document reports on the cooperative achievements and other progress made over the past months to implement the multi-annual Work Programme agreed at the EU-US Economic Ministerial Meeting in , and sets new priorities. Both sides pledged to redouble their efforts to promote economic growth and innovation and reduce the remaining barriers to transatlantic trade and investment by implementing the next phase of the Economic Initiative. issues of the Economic Initiative highlighted were: (i) Moving towards conclusion of the WTO round negotiations. Summit leaders reiterated their strong commitment to reaching an ambitious conclusion to the Development Agenda by the end of 2006. As these negotiations are at a critical phase, both sides urged all players to revisit their known positions and to demonstrate the political will and necessary to achieve an ambitious and balanced agreement that will help to strengthen global economic growth, improve living standards, and alleviate poverty. Both reiterated to continue to work in cooperation with other WTO members towards a balanced and worthwhile result. (ii) EU-US Joint Action Strategy on IPR enforcement. Protecting intellectual property rights to promote innovation, employment and competition is a fundamental economic imperative shared by the EU and the US. At this summit both sides endorsed a new Action Strategy for the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights. This Joint Action is meant to strengthen co-operation in reducing global piracy and counterfeiting and fostering public-private ownerships to protect intellectual property. Implementation has already started with concrete actions aimed at promoting strong and effective enforcement in third countries, strengthening cooperation to reduce global piracy and counterfeiting, and offering public-private partnerships to protect intellectual property. Both sides also reiterated to enhance their dialogue to promote a more efficient international patent system. (iii) investment regimes open on both sides of the . The Summit conclusions stated that investment issues remain vital, given the huge flows of investment across the . Both sides pledged to keep their investment regimes open as well as to build on existing investment flows and reduce remaining obstacles in order to boost growth and create jobs in the transatlantic economy. Obstacles which EU companies face in the US include foreign ownership restrictions or disproportionate oversight requirements as well as regulatory divergences. The EU is concerned by a new US bill which would tighten the investment review process carried out by the "in the " (CFIUS) and could thus have a negative impact on many investment initiatives. It already has a negative impact on the ongoing negotiations of an . (iv) . Both sides agreed to renew efforts to conclude a first-stage in 2006. (v) Enhancing Regulatory and Standards Cooperation. During the past months, regulatory cooperation has been enhanced in three ways. First, a dialogue was initiated between the Commission and the US Office of Management and Budget on "horizontal" issues such as transparency and methodologies for impact and risk assessment, in order to improve our understanding of each others regulatory systems and practices. Second, a was established. It held its initial meeting in on "good regulatory practices" in January, followed by a meeting in D.C in on "best cooperative practices and regulatory work plans". As a result, a set of best cooperative practices was established to guide regulators and complement transatlantic and Transparency. on the work of the first two meetings, the EU and US will continue their exchanges in future Forum events. Third, regulators on both sides made progress in a number of sector-specific dialogues covered by the 2005 Roadmap for Regulatory Cooperation. (vi) Transatlantic Capital Market Integration. In the context of the EU-US Financial Markets Regulatory Dialogue (FMRD), the Summit conclusions state progress has been made. On accounting standards, both sides confirmed their strong commitment to achieving the goal of eliminating reconciliation requirements and promoting convergence, clarifying the steps required to get there and enhancing co-operation among regulators to ensure optimal outcomes. Some other recent positive developments involve: the supervision of financial institutions, notably the implementation of II on international capital adequacy standards and the supervision of financial conglomerates; reinsurance collateral requirements; and the proposed rules to facilitate deregistration of foreign firms that no longer want to trade in the US stock markets. The Commission has kept the Council informed about the FMRD with a document delivered at the last Council Meeting of 7 2006. (vii) Government Procurement. The EU and US have worked extensively together in order to press forward the negotiations on the revision of the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) so as to reach the mutual goal of completing the review by the end of 2006 also through joint submissions to . Both sides agreed to take steps to ensure that negotiations on all pending accessions to the GPA are accelerated and that all countries respect their commitments to start negotiations for accession. (viii) . Recognising the strategic role of security of supply, competitiveness and sustainability in the energy sector, both sides agreed to reinforce their strategic energy cooperation in a number of areas, with the aim of notably improving reliability of energy supplies by increasing diversification, making better use of renewable energy sources, using energy more efficiently and co-operating to encourage improved energy security policies in third countries. (ix) Innovation. The EU and US are co-operating to improve their common knowledge on how to measure their innovation performance and to better understand each others innovation policies. A rolling work plan on e-accessibility has been agreed and already initially executed, with a goal of reaching a coherent approach on our policies in this area. A new EU-US civil space dialogue has been launched and will be continued next year. Transatlantic conferences have been held on the and health aspects of nanotechnology. The Commission has launched a wide public debate on Radio Frequency Identification technology which will include a series of workshops with the participation of US speakers. Discussions on cyber security policy are being planned. Ongoing EU-US cooperation to tackle spam led to the organisation of a joint workshop on spam enforcement and contributed to the adoption by the of a number of recent initiatives. Discussions on e-health initiatives have started, and a first on patient safety will be held, as well as a meeting on joint research on biomedical informatics. Working groups on interoperability and certification of electronic health record systems shall also be established. The renewal of the administrative arrangement for the EU-US Task Force on has been signed in 2006. (x) Trade, . Negotiations are being pursued on visa exempt for all EU citizens to the US as well as on other related issues, as part of the efforts to promote the economic and social benefits of increased while borders secure. The next stock-taking and update will be done at a second EU-US Economic Ministerial later this year. The Commission will continue to keep the Council and European Parliament informed of the state of play.