Trump team must recognize value of strong relationship with EU

by Stuart Eizenstat, opinion contributor - 03/01/17 12:40 PM ET

Vice President Mike Pence’s eloquent affirmation of America’s strong support for the European Union in a Feb. 20 speech in Brussels, along with President Trump’s recent statement that he was “totally in favor” of the EU, are both welcome steps toward repairing a dangerous trans-Atlantic rift.

In recent months, President Trump has publicly supported Britain’s exit from the EU, embraced Brexit champion Nigel Farage and described the EU as a vehicle to enhance German interests. Despite Trump’s recent reassuring statements, EU leaders worry about the depth of the president’s commitment to a partnership with the EU.

{mosads}Even in his same statement of support, the president congratulated himself for predicting that the U.K. would pull out of the EU. From Europe’s perspective, these pro-Brexit statements resemble the late French President Charles DeGaulle’s encouragement of Quebec’s independence movement in Canada. In addition, some of Trump’s advisers prefer dealing on a bilateral basis with EU member states.

The EU has its flaws. From its outset, it was a compromise between a full federal state with a uniform constitutional and legal code and a loose, unworkable confederation of states — the type that preceded the foundation of the American republic. Member states voluntarily forgo their sovereignty in such areas as trade negotiations but maintain it on taxation and budgets.

Europe-wide regulations can be heavy-handed. If the EU’s central institutions seem impervious to public opinion, President Trump’s election resulted from a similar sense of public isolation from Washington, D.C. One of the EU’s principal problems is that elected leaders tend to abandon ownership of their decisions forged together in private meetings. They take credit for popular decisions but blame the unpopular ones on faceless officials in Brussels.

The EU urgently needs America’s support. It is currently confronting high unemployment and a wave of immigrants fleeing Middle East turmoil. The influx of refugees has birthed a destructive nationalism across member nations; the type of movement the EU was designed to combat. If allowed to spread, these forces would make it even more difficult for the 22 EU member states (that are also NATO members) to underwrite their own military strength.

The EU has given the continent the longest period of peace and prosperity since the fall of the Roman Empire. The effort to unify Europe took a bold step forward after the fall of the Soviet Empire, when the EU embraced former communist states under the banner of free markets, democratic governance and the rule of law.

Throughout modern history, Europeans have been the most consistent allies of the United States, sharing values and interests far more vigorously than any other region in the world.

There are three steps the president can take to allay lingering European concerns and advance U.S. interests. Trump should host a EU-U.S. summit early in his term. Summits had been held annually, with few exceptions, from 1995-2011. In 2010, the Obama administration announced they would only take place “when necessary.”

In President Obama’s last term, only one meeting was held. Since then, the EU has enlarged its responsibilities. A Trump-led summit would send an unmistakable signal of support to nervous Europeans.

A second reassuring step would be to name a new ambassador to the continent who believes in European integration. It would cause a trans-Atlantic crisis to name a Euro-skeptic.

A third step would be to deepen EU-U.S. cooperation in helping to achieve the president’s bold agenda aimed at combatting terrorism and fueling American job growth. The EU is the world’s most important market for American companies and the major base for their operations abroad.

The $5.5 trillion trans-Atlantic economy generates 15 million jobs, half of which belong to U.S. citizens. The EU is America’s largest trading partner and the greatest source of inward foreign investment to the U.S. It will remain so after Britain leaves. While the U.S. competes for trading advantages in other countries, the trans-Atlantic marketplace is increasingly integrated.

One-third of this trade consists of intra-company transfers — U.S. companies can ship their products across Europe’s borders as easily as they can from California to New York. The U.S. and EU would be bound together even tighter if the two entities could complete negotiations that started in 2013 for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP).

The T-TIP would increase market access for both sides and set common standards for products and services to be accepted around the world. This is a deal President Trump can make by eliminating some of the most controversial provisions and agreeing to a slimmed-down version.

The alternative — a free trade agreement only with Britain — fails to recognize that the U.K. cannot negotiate on its own for several years. Further, it would complicate the U.K.’s own negotiations as they exit the EU. The EU provides a one-stop platform, allowing American companies to deal with a single regulator in finance and most manufacturing sectors, rather than 28 separate regulatory bodies.

Certification in one member state opens access to the rest, a boon for U.S. pharmaceutical companies dealing with the European Medicines Agency and airframe manufacturers like Boeing, whose U.S. government airworthiness certificates are automatically accepted throughout the EU states.

The EU’s Competition Authority reviews mergers and acquisitions involving American companies operating in Europe, instead of subjecting them to 28 different regulatory systems, and the Transatlantic Economic Council is developing compatible rules for a next generation of products.

The EU also has been America’s indispensable partner in fighting terrorism. Europol, the EU law enforcement agency, strengthens cooperation among its member states in combating terrorism, cyber crime, drug trafficking and other cross-border crime.

Representatives of eleven U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies are stationed at its headquarters, and a new agreement facilitates U.S. access to Europol’s database and those of all EU member states. This will provide critical intelligence sharing that can be used to track networks that finance terrorism.

Further, a weak EU would only benefit Russia’s desire to divide the continent. When the EU joined the U.S. in applying tough economic sanctions on Iran, they hit far more sharply than if the U.S. had acted alone.

President Trump can make the EU an even stronger partner in furthering his own goals and strengthening the world order.

Stuart Eizenstat served as U.S. ambassador to the European Union from 1993-1996. He currently serves as senior counsel at Covington & Burling LLP, an international law firm. At Covington, Eizenstat’s work focuses on resolving international trade problems and business disputes with the U.S. and foreign governments.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the views of The Hill.

Tags Brexit Europe European Union Euroscepticism in the United Kingdom International relations Mike Pence Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership