On 15 June 2021, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Council President Charles Michel met with US President Joe Biden for the EU-US summit in Brussels. The summit formed part of Joe Biden’s first transatlantic visit since being elected President, which also included attendance at the G7 Summit in Cornwall, the NATO Summit in Brussels, and bilateral meetings with both UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The tour provided the platform for President Joe Biden to (un)officially announce the re-entry of the United States on the international diplomatic stage, after a hiatus under the previous Trump Presidency.

The EU-US rapprochement has been driven by developments on both sides of the Atlantic, most obviously with the election of Biden, but also as a result of the EU’s joint communication on ‘A New EU-US Agenda for Global Change’, published by the European Commission and the European External Action Service (EEAS) on 2 December 2020.

What is the political weight behind this new transatlantic push, and how serious are the efforts to build a united bloc against China? In this note, we highlight the main messages passed following the summit – which centred on trade and technology, and environment – while assessing the summit in a more broad geopolitical context. We also present early reactions from stakeholders.

Please see note in atatchment.