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harmonizing essential regulations combined with mutual recognition of other national regulations. In the case of banking, this means that banks can operate across border under the supervision of their national home country authorities;
harmonising of tax rates.
Exchange controls have been removed and financial services deregulated but little progress has been made in the harmonization of tax rates. The fact that Council decisions on tax rates must be taken unanimously, the importance of the national interests at stake and the wide differences in national taxation systems have been powerful constraints on the Commission's efforts to move harmonisation forward.
Laws and procedures
Role of the Council of Ministers: the European Council sets macroeconomic policy guidelines; 0the Council of Economics and Finance Ministers adopts legislative instruments, drafts policy guidelines and coordinates macroeconomic policies.
Role of the European Parliament: the Parliament debates economic policies and issues reports and recommendations.
Role of the European Commission: proposes legislation and policy initiatives. Monitors Member States' economic policies and proposes macroeconomic policy guidelines and recommendations under the excessive deficit procedure. Participates in the G7 meetings of the world's leading industrial powers.
External relations
By negotiating as one, the Member States of the European Union have achieved far more success in promoting free trade in the world than they could have done by operating as single countries. In the process, they have opened many markets for their companies and secured many jobs for their people. The EU is the world's largest trade grouping and its exports support one job in 10 in the Member States.
Laws and procedures
Legislative procedures: important international trade agreements are adopted by the Council and require the assent of the European Parliament. Association agreements need the assent of the Parliament before they can be implemented.
Role of the European Commission: on a mandate approved by the Council, it negotiates multilateral external commercial agreements in the World Trade Organization as well as bilateral arrangements, applies EU trade legislation, proposes new legislation.
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
Реферат опубликован: 5/08/2006