Transatlantic Future Relations meeting in Tremezzo

"Transatlantic Youth Leaders Conference" asks for a new strategic dialogue between the US and the EU.

26.10.2004 · Improving Responsiveness

Only days before the U.S. presidential election, European and American future leaders gathered in Tremezzo/Italy for the "Transatlantic Youth Leaders Conference". Aims of the conference were to analyse the current state of transatlantic relations as well as to project future relations under a second Bush or a Kerry administration, respectively. The quintessential outcome of the conference was the fear of further rift between the transatlantic partners due to a lacking strategic dialogue between the political leaders. Hence, Prof. Werner Weidenfeld, director of C·A·P and chair of the conference, as well as Josef Janning, deputy director of C·A·P, urged for an informal dialogue on strategic aims and instruments among the foreign ministers and the Secretary of State or the heads of state and government, respectively, and the EU’s top diplomat Javier Solana. The goal of such a dialogue must be a clear transatlantic foreign policy agenda. Global crises and threats to the international peace and security, foremost the political and military instability in Iraq, do not allow further delay. A new transatlantic pragmatism of the political elites, detached from personal animosities, is the key stone for such a strategic dialogue.