Tag: Barack Obama

The prospects for a successful negotiation of a transatlantic trade and investment agreement would be greatly improved if the two sides could agree on some rules of engagement, creating a real momentum and sense of purpose, writes Philip Whyte.

US President Barack Obama is expected to call for comprehensive trade and investment talks with the European Union in his annual State of the Union speech today (12 February), following more than a year of exploratory discussions.

The EU has reacted coolly to speculation about a potential new direction in US climate policy during President Barack Obama’s second term.

With stratospheric popularity levels in Europe, Barack Obama - who won a second term last night - is expected to make a renewed commitment to energising the world economy by re-launching transatlantic trade relations, US analysts say. EurActiv reports from Washington.

To listen to some political pundits, the outcome of the US election will not diminish the EU’s importance to Washington because “Europe matters”. But more conservative analysts think otherwise.

With President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney continuing to run neck-and-neck in the US presidential race, analysts in Washington are seriously considering whether a recount on 7 November will be necessary. The consequence could be far-reaching for Europe, which is waiting until the US vote to take a decision on debt-laden Greece.

Hurricane Sandy blew the US presidential race off course over the weekend even before it came ashore, forcing Republican Mitt Romney to shift his campaign inland and fuelling fears that the massive storm bearing down on the East Coast could disrupt early voting.

An aggressive Mitt Romney took the fight to President Barack Obama yesterday (3 October) and the Republican candidate appeared to breathe new life into his struggling campaign with a solid performance at their first debate.

Europe won support from world leaders yesterday (19 June) for an ambitious but slow-moving overhaul of the eurozone, even as pressure built in financial markets for quicker solutions to its debt crisis that threatens the world economy.

US President Barack Obama said on Thursday (10 May) that Europe was still in a difficult place economically in part because it did not take some of the steps the United States did. These had included a large-scale fiscal stimulus programme and aggressive action by the Federal Reverve, the US central bank.

After months of vitriolic discord, Republican and Democratic lawmakers are expected to vote today (1 August) on a White House-backed deal to raise the US borrowing limit and avert an unprecedented default. The news was greeted with widespread relief around the world.

Despite Anglo-French activism in Libya, the European Union's divisions on interventionism mean that the bloc is no substitute for the United States' continued engagement with the world, argues author and expert on international relations Dominique Moïsi.

The news that Israeli-Palestinian talks are to resume should not lead to over-expectations as to their outcome, warns Shlomo Avineri, director-general of Israel's Foreign Ministry under Yitzhak Rabin's first cabinet and professor of political science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Although question marks hang over the transatlantic political will to devise common policies to regulate banks, US Ambassador to the EU William Kennard told officials and lobbyists yesterday (26 April) that the two giants were more inseparable than ever, "like Siamese twins".

European countries believe a planned US bank levy to cover the costs of the American financial bailout is flawed and discriminates against foreign banks, according to a report prepared in advance of an EU finance ministers' meeting tomorrow (16 April).