Brussels, 20/12/2010 (Agence Europe) - Several concrete results were obtained at the Transatlantic Economic Council (TEC) on Friday 17 December in Washington, under the co-presidency of European Commissioner for Trade Karel De Gucht and Michael Froman, US Deputy National Security Adviser for international economic affairs. The European delegation consisted of four commissioners: in addition to De Gucht, there was also Neelie Kroes (telecoms), Máire Geoghegan-Quinn (research/innovation) and Algirdas Šemeta (taxation).
The two sides successfully: - signed an agreement on common standards of electronic health records. In this agreement, the Europeans and Americans stress the need for a joint vision on internationally recognised standards for such systems; - signed a declaration on energy efficiency; - kicked off an initiative on regulatory cooperation in the field of electronic cars and related infrastructure; - launched a joint website against counterfeiting; - launched the Innovation Action Partnership (IAP) for enhancing transatlantic cooperation for innovation and marketing new technologies. Three areas will be focused upon: access to raw materials, the development of eco-friendly products and innovation policy; - they agreed to implement, by the end of October 2011, an agreement on procedures to be applied by the customs authorities to ensure the security of trade. This idea is to facilitate the mutual recognition of authorised economic operators, “trusted traders”.
Regulatory transparency. The US also proposed to make available to the EU all regulatory plans of the US agencies, explained the US ambassador to the EU, William A. Kennard, in his address to the press on 20 December, in Brussels. By way of a “one stop shop”, the European regulatory authorities will subsequently learn in advance of what initiatives their US counterparts intend to execute in the short term (next year, for example). “Beyond that, we are also making available high-level meetings of regulators from the EU to come to meet with our high-level regulators to talk about these plans”, explained Kennard. The EU has suggested that it could put in place a similar system, explained the US ambassador.
The TEC on 17 December adopted a joint declaration: trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2010/ december/tradoc_147141.final.pdf. (H.B./transl.fl)