The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, are expected in Washington on Friday 20 October to meet US President Joe Biden as part of a bilateral summit between the European Union and the United States, following the one held in June 2021 (see EUROPE 12740/4).
Announced at the end of September, this summit should provide an opportunity to make progress on several trade agreements still under negotiation, in particular the Global Arrangement on Sustainable Steel and Aluminium (GSA) and the agreement on critical minerals (see EUROPE 13227/8).
The agenda for the meeting will be full, as the leaders also plan to review the aid given to Ukraine (see EUROPE 13272/10), political and economic relations with China, and the position of the EU and the United States in relation to the countries of the South and emerging countries. Josep Borrell, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs, will also be on the trip.
Bilateral trade agreements
A large part of the summit is expected to be devoted to discussions on a number of trade agreements. Valdis Dombrovskis, the European Commissioner for Trade, is also travelling to Washington and is due to hold talks on Thursday with Katherine Tai, his American counterpart.
There are two main outstanding issues: the signing of an agreement on critical minerals and the conclusion of negotiations on the GSA.
With regard to critical minerals, discussions have been going well for several weeks and, according to our sources, a new draft agreement was presented by the Commission to the delegations of the Member States on Tuesday 17 October. However, according to a diplomatic source, several points of disagreement remain regarding the text.
This agreement should give European companies access to US supply chains, particularly for battery production, and thus reduce the impact of the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
The GSA dossier is less advanced and more sensitive. It must be concluded before the end of October (see EUROPE 12824/4), as the suspension of mutual tariffs on steel and aluminium is coming to an end. But the disagreements between the two parties are considerable and there seems to have been little progress. The Member States stress the importance of such an agreement complying with WTO rules and taking into account the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, a sensitive issue for the Americans (see EUROPE 13235/10).
According to our sources, at this stage there is no text of the declaration on the table, and an extraordinary meeting of the Member States’ ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) will be called for the afternoon of Thursday 19 October to try to finalise the agreements before the meeting.
According to draft conclusions from the European Council on 26 and 27 October, of which EUROPE has received a copy, the Member States call on the Commission to continue to work on “addressing the distortive effects of subsidies by global actors, including of the US Inflation Reduction Act”.
View the European Council’s draft conclusions: https://aeur.eu/f/94e
Relations with China
One of the other major points of discussion at the summit will be relations with China, particularly in terms of economic, commercial and industrial security.
According to diplomatic sources, the discussions are likely to follow the same path as the conclusions adopted at the G7 summit in May, namely a willingness to work with China, while protecting itself from situations of dependency (‘derisking’). Hence the ambition to strengthen ties between the European Union and the United States, particularly in the areas of technology and trade.
Foreign affairs
As usual, the transatlantic partners are expected to take stock of foreign policy issues. In particular, they are expected to examine the situation in the Middle East (see other news), following President Biden’s emergency visit to the region on Wednesday 18 October.
A senior European official said that he did not “see any difference in approach (between Europeans and Americans), particularly in terms of preventing the conflict from spreading in the region”.
The EU and the United States should also reaffirm their commitment to Ukraine and reiterate their diplomatic, financial and humanitarian support for Kyiv, according to a European source. Another source said that strengthening the application of sanctions against Russia could also be discussed.
The European side would also like to put pressure on the United States regarding climate, greening the economy, and financing the transition, particularly in third countries.
The subject of defence could also be discussed. (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre and Camille-Cerise Gessant)