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White House Moves Toward Integration with the EU Alan Scholl Oh, but for the days when American statesmen warned of the dangers of entangling alliances. Granted, that was a very long time ago. But under President Bush the United States has embarked on an almost unprecedented campaign of international integration. Following the implosion of plans to form a Free Trade Area of the Americas earlier this decade, the Bush administration returned to the more modest but no less revolutionary proposal — first hatched in 2001 — to bring about greater integration of Mexico and Canada with the United States through the Security and Prosperity Partnership. Now, the White House is moving forward with plans to enhance U.S. integration with the European Union. As we reported earlier, on April 30, the White House released a "Framework for Advancing Transatlantic Economic Integration Between the United States of America and the European Union." The new document comes as a result of the 2007 U.S.-EU Summit at which President Bush met with EU leaders Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, and Jose Manuel Barroso, the President of Portugal.
At the Summit, Bush enthused over the importance of the agreement reached with the EU leaders. "I told the Chancellor and the President that the EU-U.S. relations are very important to our country, that not only is it important for us to strategize how to promote prosperity and peace, but it's important for us to achieve concrete results. And we have done so," Bush said in remarks at the White House Rose Garden. "I thank the Chancellor and Jos very much for the transatlantic economic integration plan that the three of us signed today. It is a statement of the importance of trade. It is a commitment to eliminating barriers to trade. It is a recognition that the closer that the United States and the EU become, the better off our people become. So this is a substantial agreement and I appreciate it." The Framework resulting from the Summit identified a number of "shared understandings," including: • A commitment "to strengthen transatlantic economic integration....
To that end, this Framework reaffirms a multi-year program of cooperation
that emphasizes results and provides accountability." The Framework document contains several other similar points as well, but goes into some detail regarding the creation of a supranational governmental body to oversee issues of transatlantic integration. That body, the transatlantic Economic Council, which on the U.S. side will be run by a Cabinet-level official from the White House, will serve a number of purposes. As specified by the Framework document, the new council will have control over all efforts to bring the envisioned plan of integration to fruition, including setting priorities and deadlines. Convening at least once per year, it will, notably, "Facilitate closer cooperation between the United States and European Union and our legislators and stakeholders" and it will have as an overall purpose "the goal of accelerating progress." As with the Security and Prosperity Partnership, the new Framework agreement was reached without Congressional oversight. This means that, once again, a decision concerning the fate of 300 million Americans was determined by just one man! If you think, as we do, that this is too much power for one man to wield, then we invite you to investigate membership in the John Birch Society. Together we can restore our nation's commitment to liberty and independence under the Constitution. |
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