A historic to-do list

By Philippe Camus and others
Published: January 21 2009 19:19

In the past decade, Americans have rediscovered the virtues of soft power while Europeans have come to grasp its limits. In the past few months, both have started coming to terms with the fact that what they thought was a world to come – a truly multipolar world, more complex, with new financial and strategic players – is already at hand.
As the new US administration prepares to take office, the prospect of increased co-operation between Europe and America on the political front is welcome news for everyone on both sides of the Atlantic – and well beyond. The need to kick-start the transatlantic partnership in certain strategic areas has been making itself sorely felt of late. The financial crisis that is affecting the entire planet so brutally makes it more dire still.
Beyond the purely political realm, innovative institutions such as the European-American Business Council and the Transatlantic Business Dialogue have long played a significant role in forging ties between businesses in Europe and the US. In certain strategic fields (aerospace, defence, security, energy and the environment), the concomitance of the new US administration and a Europe more convinced than ever of the desirability of a transatlantic rapprochement opens a truly historic window of opportunity.
To take a couple of straightforward examples, fields such as renewable, including nuclear, energy and undertakings like the development of the green aircraft of the future are currently among the most promising in terms of significantly reducing the greenhouse effect without adversely affecting economic growth output. To come up with the power plants of tomorrow, to develop the new materials, the new engines, the new designs, indeed the new energies that will make a totally green aircraft a reality, revolutionary technological breakthroughs will be needed. The only way such breakthroughs will take place in the next 50 years is through the co-ordinated talent, budget and efforts of the top players in these fields from both sides of the Atlantic. To be sure, other entities from all around the world have a substantial role to play in the process. Still, it is likely the transatlantic axis will be more than instrumental in federating them.
Other areas and issues that should be looked at hand-in-hand, and with a new eye, by governments and industry leaders from both sides of the Atlantic, include:
- Increasing system interoperability and the incorporation of European and US technology in each other’s systems in aerospace, defence, security and telecoms.
- Developing new emergency energy-sharing schemes.
- Leveraging more efficiently data processing capabilities.
- Developing potential partnerships on other existing and future aerospace and defence programmes.
- Protecting globally the intellectual property rights regime that fosters such innovations.
- Defining a shared global approach on the post Kyoto commitments to reduce CO2 emissions.
The guiding principles of mutually beneficial and balanced transatlantic co-operation have long been nailed down, what is needed now is a to-do list and to get to work. Time is of the essence – the window will not stay open for long. The past approach, where no technology from “the other side” was allowed in the “critical path” of sensitive industrial programmes, reveals what is at stake here. It could remain the name of the game if we do not move fast to jumpstart crucial discussions on certain issues in these industries.
In the midst of one of the most severe financial crises the world has known, and with state intervention in the economy suddenly – and to a certain extent, rightfully – back into fashion, the possibility lurks that governments will choose to limit their renewed multilateral efforts to the purely political realm. The risk exists indeed that they do this while adopting protectionist stances when it comes to the economy and policies of industrial strategic relevance. This would be very bad news for the US, Europe and the world at large, given the challenges at hand. Conversely, through straightforward discussions on the above key issues, Europeans and Americans could make critical progress toward full recovery while paving the way for the paradigm shifts this crisis both calls and allows for. The time is ripe. We need to sit down together and get to work.
Aris Candris, President and CEO, Westinghouse Electric
Philippe Camus, Co-Managing Partner, Lagardère
Charles Edelstenne, CEO, Dassault Aviation
Pierre Gadonneix, Chairman and CEO, EDF
Louis Gallois, CEO, EADS
Jean-Paul Herteman, CEO, Safran
Jeffrey Immelt, Chairman and CEO, General Electric
Anne Lauvergeon, CEO, Areva
Felix Marquardt, CEO, Marquardt & Marquardt
Denis Ranque, Chairman and CEO, Thales
Ronald D. Sugar, Chairman and CEO, Northrop Grumman
Ben Verwaayen, CEO, Alcatel Lucent
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009