Les associations d’entreprises vers une coopération transatlantique [en] 

The BusinessEurope initiative follows efforts by the German EU Presidency and Transatlantic Policy Network (TPN) MEPs in the first half of 2007 to promote the establishment of a transatlantic market by 2015 - free of barriers to trade and investment between the EU and the US - and to develop a common approach to regulatory policy, competition law and capital markets, in order to generate economic growth (EurActiv 12/01/07).

At the time, German Chancellor and then EU president Angela Merkel expressed support for applying the single market to a transatlantic level and reinforcing EU-US co-operation, while BusinessEurope (formerly UNICE) Secretary-General Philippe de Buck urged that "the next months be used to conclude or launch negotiations on a framework agreement".

BusinessEurope Secretary-General Philippe de Buck confirmed that the next concrete measure, agreed at the 4 September meeting, will be a round table on the framework for advancing transatlantic economic integration on 2 October. The event will be organised in partnership with the Transatlantic Business Dialogue , the American Chamber of Commerce to the European Union , the Transatlantic Policy Network and the European American Business Council . 

Expected attendees will include DG Enterprise Director John Farnell (responsible for the Transatlantic Economic Council in the Commission), a US Government representative (tbc) amd MEPs Elmar Brok (EPP-EDGroup/CDU) and Alexander Graf Lambsdorff (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe).

According to a BusinessEurope spokesman: "The goal is to assess progress to date with this initiative and provide a boost to ensure the long-term viability of the process. The aim of the meeting is to present the transatlantic business community's priorities for the Transatlantic Economic Council (TEC) , assess its progress to date, and discuss the business community's expectations for the TEC meeting scheduled in November."

Christian Democrat MEP Elmar Brok, due to attend the round table on 2 October, said the aim is "to remove all existing barriers to trade by 2015 and foster a greater political understanding as part of the new transatlantic agenda".

A spokesman for the Commission's Transport Economic Council told EurActiv: "It is well known that the transatlantic market is the world's largest, deepest and most integrated economic space – and has been for 100 years. Yet its success masks fundamental weaknesses in the areas of non-tariff barriers and regulatory alignment. As the overall market grows, the costs of these inherent inefficiencies grow as well – preventing the creation of an estimated one million new jobs and GDP gains per capita in the EU and United States of up to 3.5%."