Страница: 3/8
United States
The EU and the United States form a global partnership, covering not only trade and economics but also cooperation on a whole range of foreign policy issues and global challenges.
The economic relationship between the two is characterized by close economic interdependence. The EU and United States are each other's most important partners in trade and investment. Bilateral trade flows in goods and services amounted to ECU 200 billion and total transatlantic investment was ECU 365 billion in 1994. More than three million jobs on either side of the Atlantic depend on this investment.
The Presidents of the United States, the Commission and the European Council meet every six months, as do the Commission and the US Government at ministerial level.
Canada
Links between Europe and Canada have traditionally been close, fortified in particular by Canada's membership of NATO. Bilateral trade exceeds ECU 19 billion and the EU is the second most popular destination for Canadian foreign investment after the United States.
Regular summit meetings now take place between the Presidents of the European Council, the Commission and the Canadian Prime Minister. In the coming years, the relationship is expected to undergo further political development.
Japan
This bilateral relationship has been dominated for years by the Union's trade deficit with Tokyo. Japan exports to Europe are almost 50% higher than European exports to Japan. While keeping up pressure on Japan to remove non-tariff barriers, the Union has also sought to deepen and extend cooperation beyond the field of trade. A joint declaration on EU-Japan relations in 1991 lists shared objectives in the political and economic fields and establishes a consultation framework including annual meetings between the Presidents of the European Council and the Commission, and the Japanese Prime Minister.
Cooperation between the Union and Japan now takes place across a wide range of areas, including science and technology, competition policy, development assistance, environmental policy, industrial policy, industrial cooperation, macroeconomic and financial affairs and transport.
Countries of the southern and eastern Mediterranean
Relations with the 12 Mediterranean countries with which the EU has association or cooperation agreements are being relaunched on the basis of a partnership declaration adopted by both sides in Barcelona in November 1995. This lays the basis for closer political cooperation and the EU's broadly-based efforts to promote development in the Mediterranean region which include industrial cooperation, encouraging direct investment and creating networks between universities and other social institutions
The declaration also sets the ambitious target of a free trade zone by 2010 between the Union and the Mediterranean countries represented in Barcelona: Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, the Palestinian autonomous territories, Syria, Turkey, Cyprus and Malta.
Countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEECs)
The collapse of communism led to a surge in the relations between the Union and most of the CEECs, including the signing of association agreements, the so-called 'Europe Agreements'. Currently, there are nine such agreements. Six are in force involving Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia, while those with Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are awaiting ratification (a tenth has been initialled with Slovenia).
Реферат опубликован: 4/03/2009