Europe and the United States The challenges of the transatlantic market – by Cosimo Ceccuti
by 
Europe and the United States: The Challenges of the Transatlantic Market is the theme of the study seminar held in the library of the Fondazione Spadolini Nuova Antologia (via Pian dei Giullari 36/a, Florence) Friday November 29, from 9:30 am. Promoted by the Fondazione Spadolini, in collaboration with the Associazione Generale delle Cooperative italiane (General Association of Italian Cooperatives), the international seminar, opened by the Under- Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Marta Dassù, addressed a theme of diplomacy of two continents, through reflections of essential economists, political scientists, internationalists, journalists, and general experts of Europe and the United States. The idea is for the U.S. and the E.U. to be able to create a large area of the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement in which they can freely circulate goods, services and investment. After a promising start (in 2005) the idea had run aground on the shoals of diplomacy and is hampered by the persistent distrust of certain American circles by the countries of old Europe for the outbreak of the economic crisis in the globalized world that has favored the increase of fragmentation and isolationism.
Barack Obama was right, when his second term began, to give a strong boost to the creation of a single market between the “Atlantic” countries. Last July in Washington, talks intended to give substance to the project were viewed favorably by all European countries, especially Germany and Great Britain. Obama has referred to this as the priority solution for the basic problem of the West, able to reduce debt while preserving the middle class, and therefore without tightening fiscal discipline and successfully facing competition from emerging countries. This meeting is a process aimed at removing technical and diplomatic obstacles and smoothing differences through negotiations themselves, in the hope of meeting the common objective in 2015.
Cosimo Ceccuti
President of the Fondazione Spadolini
