Speech by Amb Valenzuela on EU-US Partnership: Essential for Global Solutions

Summary: Speech by Amb Valenzuela on EU-US Partnership: Essential for Global Solutions (6 December 2005: Westchester, NY)

Discussion on "The European Union-US Partnership: Essential for Global Solutions" featuring Ambassador Fernando M. Valenzuela, Head of the Delegation of the European Commission to the United Nations, sponsored by the Westchester County Association, co-hosted by UNA-USA, US Department of Commerce, and Business Council for the United Nations, Westchester, NY

Speaking Notes

• First, let me thank you for the invitation to come out to Westchester. And I mean that sincerely.

• Since my arrival last May to head up the European Commission's Delegation to the UN, the intense activity at the UN, especially leading up to the famous summit in September -- and now, the crucially important follow-up -- has been so intense that I have rarely left the Turtle Bay neighborhood (where I also live), much less the island of Manhattan.

• So, it's nice to finally discover first hand that the greater NY region does exist - and I have much to explore. And it's also very healthy that I leave my normal confines to come and speak with someone other than Ambassadors - even though most are excellent at what they do - on a topic that affects us all here in this room: the transatlantic relationship and its importance in areas of global concern.

• The relationship between Europe and the US is highly scrutinized, even psychoanalyzed, with imaginative generalizations about Roman Gods and Goddesses, like Venus and Mars, or philosophers, like Hobbes and Kant, to describe our differences and conflicts in the wider world. Many trees have died in the name of transatlantic relationship.

• But there's a good reason for this attention: deep bonds of kinship and a sharing of both culture and values. And built on these foundations: the world's largest and most important economic relationship. Many of you are businessmen, so you might have heard this before, but it bears repeating that…

• We are each other's largest trading partners, with over a billion dollars in trade a day passing between us, some $70 billion in 2003 alone. Of course, we have our occasional disputes, sometimes spectacularly, but for all the headlines, only 2% of this trade is at issue.

• Investment in each other is even more impressive, as two-way investment stock approaches $2 trillion. 62% of FDI in the US comes from the EU. There's more EU FDI in Texas than there is US FDI in Japan!

• Overall, as many as 14 million jobs in the EU and the US depend on transatlantic commercial ties.

• And these ties are also especially important to NY State, where EU firms are by far the largest foreign investor, some 58.4% of total FDI, supporting an estimated 260,000 jobs. NY is the third largest recipient of EU FDI among the 50 states.

• New York's largest export market is also the 25-country European Union, where almost 30% of NY exports of goods went in 2003 (Canada #2 with 23%). It is the #2 exporting state to the EU next to California, and the top five products are all high value-added manufacturing items (computers and electronics, chemicals, transport equipment and machinery).

• Clearly, NY is a case and point for the economic benefits and interdependence of our transatlantic economy.

• It's true that over the last several years, growth in the core countries of the euro zone, particularly Germany, France and Italy has been very slow. Europe is grappling with economic reform issues, the challenges of an aging population and an general unease with aspects of globalization, aspects which certainly played a part in the "no" vote in France and the Netherlands on the EU's Constitutional treaties. This we can go into in the Q&A if you like.

• But Europe is still open for business, and the EU hasn't gone anywhere. We are in a "period of reflection" as to our next steps institutionally, but what has been built up over the decades continues to function across the range of policies.

• And in a bit of good news, our recent economic forecasts show a return to modest, improved growth overall, including the larger countries. Even if it is in the range of 2-2.5%, when the EU grows by 2%, it adds another Taiwan to the world economy - good news for everyone.

• Of course, our cooperation goes far beyond the purely economic sphere. And it's not only a case of a US Unilateral Gulliver interacting with the European Multilateral Lilliputians. That is a misconception. It is far more nuanced than that, and a much more effective cooperation than is known.

• Throughout the Bush II Administrations, I have witnessed this EU-US cooperation in foreign affairs first hand, both from Brussels and at UN HQ in NY. Iraq, among other issues, undoubtedly presented difficulties in our relationship, but since Bush's reelection last year, there has been a marked change in the US approach, away from the unilateral approach. President Bush's visit to Brussels last February, followed by high level EU contacts over the summer and fall have served to improve the atmosphere and increase our joint efforts on problems of global importance.

• In terms of policy formulation and execution, we may use different tools out of the existing tool box, different strategies perhaps, but the objectives - promoting peace, stability, democracy and economic development - are largely shared.

• But if America is now listening to Europe more, I think it is because we have worked hard to be worth listening to. If America is increasingly defining EU/US relations by what we can do together to promote democracy and freedom, it is because we have shown we can deliver results on the world stage.

• Just a few examples of this: the EU's commitment and role to rebuild and stabilize the Indonesian province of Aceh, and to monitor its historic peace process, a good example of our work in post-conflict, post-disaster situations.

• And In Afghanistan. Obviously, a lot of our activities there are carried out shoulder-to-shoulder with our American colleagues. Still, some 80% of the troops in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force come from EU Member States. And we are doing a lot of work independently as well, to help with the reconstruction and political transition process in Afghanistan - in close harmony with the US.

The EU paid half the cost of last year's Presidential election and made a substantial contribution to the recent parliamentary and provincial elections.

• Our close co-operation on the broader Middle-East is also a major success story. We have common interests there and a shared vision of where we want to get to. The G8 initiative on the Broader Middle East dovetails with our own Barcelona process, now in its tenth year, to encourage economic development, integration, good governance and human rights in the Med Rim region.

• On a more micro level, the recent positive events in Gaza, particularly the opening of the borders there, bear a distinct US-EU stamp: the US lent its weight to broker a deal, and the EU lent manpower and expertise for professional border control. A small, but highly significant success.

• Even in Iraq, where the EU, via my institution, the Commission, financed 100% of the recent Iraqi referendum on the new constitution, and will be the largest donor to finance upcoming elections.

• There are many more examples of this, in Iran, Ukraine, Lebanon, but I believe you get my point. Our relations have not only normalized, they have become more effective, which is also because the EU is maturing, speaking with a more unified voice more often, on a much broader range of issues than in the past.

• Which brings me to the UN, where I spend most of my time these days. And where the EU is playing a larger and, if I may say, an underestimated role.

• No matter how you slice it, the cornerstone of the international community's multilateral architecture is the UN, which owes its existence to the far-sightedness of the Roosevelt and Truman Administrations.

In the recent report of the bipartisan Task Force on the United Nations, Newt Gingrich and George Mitchell recognized how important it was for the UN to "reconfirm its place in today's transformed international environment," stating explicitly that "an effective United Nations is in the interests of the United States."

• The UN Summit in September was the best moment for that to happen. Unfortunately, the summit can at best be described as a "mitigated success." The establishment of the Peacebuilding Commission was evidently a good outcome, and the progress made on development issues was more or less satisfactory, but the results clearly fell short of our ambitions regarding the Human Rights Council and the environment. And reform of UN management, a major goal of the US, hangs in the balance. Nevertheless, it is important to see the Summit as part of a process and not as the end of one.

• Making the UN more effective, including management reform, is a shared EU-US objective, but here, our relative strengths and use of the "tools in the tool box" will have to come into play.

• Micro-management of the UN and its budget by the Member States is largely a small and developing country vs. large and contributing country issue. If the small, largely developing countries weaken their hold on the ability for the UN Secretariat to act, they feel they will lose out in influence to the larger countries and contributors to the UN budget. A very tricky divide, and one to watch in the coming weeks. Here, I hope that the EU, with its 25 Members States, and many affiliating countries, whose role as by far the world's largest contributor of development aid, can play a decisive role in bridging this divide.

• In the end, strong, multilateral institutions, while more important than ever before, are not an end in themselves. They are simply tools for promoting peace, stability and economic development. For advancing democracy, freedom and human rights.

Without them, however, the world would unquestionably be a poorer and more dangerous place. It would also be much harder to deliver effective solutions to those problems that transcend national borders. Problems like climate change. Like transmissible diseases and pandemics. Like international terrorism.

• Conclusion:

As the EU grows as a global player, it becomes not a competitor, but the "indispensable partner" for the US. We do more things and achieve better results when we work together. European economic strength has never played against the fundamental economic interests of the US. On the contrary, as we have seen, the relationship of our two economies is in itself a formidable cause of growth and progress. There is no reason why this should be different in the political or in the security field.

Together, we are the driving force that can bring peace, stability and greater freedom to the world scene, much of it via the UN, which is still the premier, and indispensable multilateral organization.

Thank you for your attention.

Ref: SP05-419EN
EU source: European Commission
UN forum:
Date: 6/12/2005

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