TheWeekInCongress.com

Week Ending may 14, 2004

House Resolution 577-50 years of US and European Union cooperation.

BRIEF

   The resolution celebrates the economic participation and cooperation between the US and the European Union (EU). The House finds that the current European Union began in 1950 as the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and later developed into the EU.

   The resolution lays out the history between the EU and the US beginning in November of 1953 when the US sent a diplomatic observer to the ECSC.

   In 1954 the ECSC opened an information office in Washington, D.C. through the law firm of Cleary and Gotlieb.

  Although differences of opinion between the EU and the US have existed on a broad array of issues over the past 50 years, there remains an important foundation of shared values across the Atlantic which reaffirms that the current strengths and common interests of the United States and the European Union far outweigh the differences;

   September 11, 2001 illuminated and increased the need for “forceful and coordinated” strategic cooperation between the two in the areas of trade and domestic and foreign security.

   So, to effectively manage the relationship (Congress sees it as a partnership) links between institutions in both continents are necessary and should be nurtured. Those institutions would include Congress and the European parliament through the organization; the Transatlantic Legislators Dialogue.

   In the end Congress believes the combination of the two is essential to resolving international disputes, promoting peace, expanding global economic opportunity, combating global threats and being prepared to respond to unforeseen events.

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