mr president even if western unity helped us win our independence and end the cold war by the time our countries joined both nato and the eu transatlantic relations were not in their best shape
the current crisis and its common challenges the deterioration of the security environment the global issues like energy climate change nuclear proliferation and the new power centres the regional issues like the middle east afghanistan pakistan iran and africa require maximum intensification of transatlantic cooperation
in context the report makes a positive contribution by primarily suggesting ways to institutionalise those relations to commonly approach russia and the six eastern european countries to achieve the unified transatlantic market to gradually integrate our financial markets and to extend the us visa waiver programme to all eu member states
we cannot fail
the cost for the west would be the loss of initiative in world affairs possibly for a long time to come
