This report provides background on the Congress-EP relationship and the role of the TLD. It also explores potential future options should an effort to strengthen ties between the two bodies gain momentum.

The United States and the European Union (EU) share an extensive, dynamic, and for many a mutually beneficial political and economic partnership. A growing element of that relationship is the role that the U.S. Congress and the European Parliament (EP) have begun to play, including in areas ranging from foreign and economic policy to regulatory reform. Consequently, some officials and experts on both sides of the Atlantic have asked whether it would be beneficial for Congress and the EP to strengthen institutional ties further and to explore the possibility of co-ordinating efforts to develop more complementary policies in some areas. This book discusses the transatlantic legislative co-operation between the United States Congress and the European Parliament.

This article analyses the roles of the European Parliament and the US Congress in addressing regulatory interdependencies arising in the EU-US strategic partnership. It examines their international actorness as a potential remedy for the problems of democratic participation, executive dominance, and opaqueness in the shaping of transatlantic relations. It shows that legislatures significantly contribute to regulatory discrepancies and trade disputes and that the adverse consequences thereof justify more intensive ex ante cooperation between them. The analysis conducts two groups of case studies to demonstrate how the EP and Congress influence law and policy in areas of transatlantic regulatory and foreign policy divergence. The first group of case studies analyses parliamentary involvement in the making of international agreements (TTIP and ACTA). The second group of case studies inspects legislative action with extraterritorial effects (US Helms-Burton and Sarbanes-Oxley Acts). The article argues that the EP and Congress have so far frequently acted against the spirit of the strategic partnership in ways that are injurious to the interests of the other side, and discusses whether an interparliamentary early warning mechanism could reduce legislative and political frictions and increase the coherence of transatlantic lawmaking.

The European Union and the US are currently negotiating the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), with potentially enormous economic gains for both partners. Experts from the European Union and the US explore not only the groundwork laid for TTIP under the "New Transatlanticism," but also the key variables – economic, cultural, institutional, and political – shaping transatlantic policy outcomes. Divided into four parts, Part I, consisting of three chapters, contextualizes the transatlantic relationship with an historical survey, contemporary foreign relations and policy, and cultural dynamics. Together, these chapters provide the background for understanding the evolving nature of the EU–US relationship. Part II of this volume focuses on governance and comprises two chapters – one on transatlantic governance and the other administrative culture. Part III consists of six policy chapters: competition, trade, transport, mobility regimes, financial services regulation, and GMOs. Part IV, consisting of three chapters, explores prospects and challenges associated with transatlanticism, including the TTIP. The last chapter concludes with lessons learned and future challenges with respect to policy convergence; the nature of the EU–US relationship; power, resources, and bargaining within the transatlantic partnership; and, an assessment of the future of deeper cooperation and integration. This insightful account into policy cooperation between the EU and the US is a welcomed resource for policy specialists oriented toward comparative public policy wishing to enter the arena of Transatlantic Studies.

This chapter carries out a fourfold analysis. First, we conduct a theoretical conceptualisation of the international activities of the European Parliament that fall under the politico-legal phenomenon of 'parliamentary diplomacy,' because the bulk of transatlantic interparliamentary collaboration substantively falls under this category. Second, we inquire about the legal and institutional framework for the European Parliament's cooperation with the United States Congress, as the EU's key strategic partner. Not only do we examine the way transatlantic interparliamentary relations were formalised, we also analyse the prerogatives and outreach of the Transatlantic Legislators' Dialogue as the main format for transatlantic parliamentarism. Third, we inquire whether forums for the European Parliament's collaboration with national parliaments, such as the Interparliamentary Conference for CFSP and CSDP and, much less so, COSAC as the Conference of European Affairs Committees can add any value in shaping EU parliamentary input in Euro-American relations. Fourth, we analyse the incentives and disincentives for the 'diplomatic' activities of the European Parliament in general and towards the United States in particular. It is submitted in this chapter that the political practice of transatlantic parliamentarism contributes to an informal, incremental shaping of the European Parliament's legal competences in foreign affairs. This argument views MEPs' external action as part of the EU's living constitution, whereby the meaning, content and exercise of foreign affairs powers evolve over time closer or farther away from their written fundament.

In 1990, the signature of the Transatlantic Declaration marked the formal recognition of the European Community as the third main element in the transatlantic institutional architecture, alongside NATO and bilateral relationships. Five years later, US-EU relations took another major step forward with the adoption of a 'New Transatlantic Agenda' (NTA). This volume puts this evolution into historical perspective by identifying the enduring features of the relationship. At the dawn of the Bush administration and in the wake of the Nice Treaty, it also makes a bold attempt at assessing the current state of US-EU relations, notably by taking stock of the changes introduced via the New Transatlantic Agenda. Aimed at practitioners and academics alike, and going well beyond a general overview of transatlantic relations, it first explores the evolution of structures and processes in US-EU relations while paying special attention to the policy-shaping and policy-making strategies of public and private actors. Focusing on the post-NTA record, it then endeavours to assess, explain and evaluate the policy outcomes of EU-US relations. Leading authors and practitioners in the field took part in the elaboration of this book: Maria Green Cowles, Youri Devuyst, Thomas Frellesen, Anthony Gardner, Roy Ginsberg, Alan Henrikson, John Peterson, Alberta Sbragia, René Schwok, Michael Smith.

The Routledge Handbook of Transatlantic Relations is an essential and comprehensive reference for the regulation of transatlantic relations across a range of subjects, bringing together contributions from scholars, policy makers, lawyers and political scientists. Future oriented in a range of fields, it probes the key technical, procedural and policy issues for the US of dealing with, negotiating, engaging and law-making with the EU, taking a broad interdisciplinary perspective including international relations, politics, political economic and law, EU external relations law and international law and assesses the external consequences of transatlantic relations in a systematic and comprehensive fashion. The transatlantic relationship constitutes one of the most established and far-reaching democratic alliances globally, and which has propelled multilateralism, trade regulation and the EU-US relationship in global challenges. The different contributions will propose solutions to overcome these problems and help us understand the shifting transatlantic agenda in diverse areas from human rights, to trade, and security, and the capacity of the transatlantic relationship to set new international agendas, standards and rules. The Routledge Handbook of Transatlantic Relations will be a key reference for scholars, students and practitioners of Transatlantic Relations/EU-US relations, EU External Relations law, EU rule-making, EU Security law and more broadly to global governance, International law, international political economy and international relations.