Strengthening transatlantic ties in defense of our democracies

The EESC’s Transatlantic Relations Follow-up Committee met to discuss two current and timely topics with the aim of strengthening the EU-US partnership on a global scene, particularly important in the current challenging international context: the state of play of the transatlantic trade policy and the Year of Action between the two Summits for Democracy.

"Democracy is like oxygen; you cannot see it, you cannot smell it, you don't even realize it is there. Until it's gone." Those were the words used by MEP Katalin Cseh, resonating strongly amongst the EESC members, their distinguished guests and participants during the meeting. [...]

Bernd Lange, Member of the European Parliament and Chair of Committee on International Trade, stressed the importance of stabilizing partnerships with like-minded-countries, pointing out the need for faster ratification of ongoing and future trade agreements. He presented the recent positive developments in the transatlantic trade policies, be it the Airbus-Boing case, steel and aluminum tariffs or the Spanish black olives dispute, and put a special accent on the encouraging results of the work of the ten working groups of the Tech and Trade Council (TTC). [...]