USA

The European Union and the United States share a long tradition working together to promote strong economic growth. This is pursued through multilateral and bilateral mechanisms. Bilaterally, the EU-US annual presidential Summits have fostered cooperation.

At the 2004 Summit in Shannon, Ireland, the EU and the US committed themselves to strengthen economic partnership. Regarding energy and transport, they agreed to “work together to enhance trade and transport security while facilitating the movement of people and goods and to develop and help disseminate energy efficiency technologies”. They also agreed to continue cooperation on the development of the hydrogen economy based on the joint statement agreed at the 2003 Summit .

At the Washington Summit in June 2005, the EU and the US launched an initiative to enhance economic partnership including air cargo traffic and air transport security and a declaration to cooperate on energy security, energy efficiency, renewables and economic development .

The EU-US first informal economic ministerial meeting in November 2005 followed up on the commitments made during the 2005 June Summit through a joint EU-US Work Programme and a common EU platform .

At the June 2006 Vienna Summit , the EU and the US presented a joint declaration to strengthen their strategic partnership. They agreed strategic cooperation on energy. Regarding transport, they will pursue dialogue on border and transportation security. They agreed to redouble efforts to conclude a first stage air transport agreement and also to enhance cooperation on the legal framework governing the transfer of air passengers’ data.

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Open Sky Agreement

The EU’s ultimate goal is to create a free trade area in air transport between the US and the EU, an “Open Aviation Area”. In the 2006 Vienna Summit , the EU and the US agreed to “redouble the efforts to conclude a first stage Air Transport Agreement” .

Transport Security and Safety

After the terrorist attacks in the US, Spain and London, transport security has been pushed up to the political agenda on the transatlantic relations. Dialogue at expert level has been established through a High Level EU-US group on border and transport security and an EU-US Transportation Security Co-operation Group.

An EU-US agreement Cooperation in the Regulation of Civil Aviation Safety should be signed at the end of 2006, which will ensure safer transatlantic air travel

The EU and the US have also committed to cooperate closely on the legal framework governing the transfer of air passenger’s data following the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling of 30th May 2006. The Commission adopts two initiatives on 19th June 2006 to comply with the ECJ Ruling on the transfer of Passenger Name Records to the United States of America.