Taking the existing interparliamentary relationship as its basis, the Transatlantic Legislators' Dialogue (TLD) aims to strengthen and enhance the level of political discourse between European and American legislators. It does so against the background of the numerous other contacts that have resulted in a significantly closer
EU-US relationship at a variety of levels. These include, namely, the annual EU-US Summit meetings established by the Transatlantic Declaration of 1990, the Transatlantic Dialogues (Business, Consumers, Environment, and Labour) and other initiatives.
The TLD constitutes the formal response of the European Parliament and the US Congress to the commitment in the New
Transatlantic Agenda (NTA) of 1995, to enhanced parliamentary ties between the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...
and the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
. In practical terms, the TLD includes the bi-annual meetings of the
European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...
and the
US Congress
The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washin ...
delegations and a series of teleconferences, organised on specific topics of mutual concern, with a view to fostering an ongoing and uninterrupted dialogue.
The European Parliament and the US Congress have established a steering committee to co-ordinate TLD activities. The steering committees also maintains contacts with the members of the Senior Level Group (SLG), which is composed of high-ranking officials from the European Commission, the EU Presidency and the US Administration.
TLD
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The current chairs of the TLD are Radosław Sikorski
Radosław Tomasz "Radek" Sikorski (; born 23 February 1963) is a Polish politician and journalist who is a Member of the European Parliament. He was Marshal of the Sejm from 2014 to 2015 and Minister of Foreign Affairs in Donald Tusk's cabinet ...
PPE (Poland/ PPE-DE) on the European side and Rep. Jim Costa ( D-California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
) on the American side.
References
United States–European relations
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