Cleveland & Philly: the EU Goes to the (Political) Theatre
The airwaves these days are abuzz with coverage of what is arguably the greatest piece of political theatre in the world — the quadrennial Republican and Democratic Party conventions. Tens of thousands of people will descend on Cleveland and Philadelphia in the coming days to witness the pomp, circumstance, showmanship and (sometimes) tumult that goes into the formal nomination of candidates for President of the United States.
So why would the EU Delegation be in Cleveland or Philadelphia for these multi-day political pep rallies?
Members from both houses of Congress will be in attendance, rubbing shoulders with party leaders or activists, members of the media, and other affiliated or interested organizations. Many of the people with whom the Delegation works on a daily basis to further the transatlantic relationship will be at the conventions.
These gatherings also provide a unique opportunity for our Ambassador and other Delegation representatives to meet those individuals (especially campaign advisors) who may be part of the next US Administration and engage with representatives of the parties to get a sense of what their priorities would be for EU-US relations should their candidate win the White House in November. Such information is critical for the EU Delegation’s reporting back to colleagues in our Brussels headquarters. A number of embassies send their ambassadors to the conventions and some countries will even send senior representatives from their national capital. The EU’s Ambassador to the United States, David O’Sullivan, will be attending both conventions and Federica Mogherini, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs & Security Policy, will be attending the Democratic Convention in Philadelphia.
It is one thing to simply attend the conventions, but the EU Delegation will be taking its engagement one step further by hosting panel discussions and receptions at each of these massive gatherings. Each panel will feature (at minimum) Ambassador O’Sullivan, a Member of Congress, an advisor to the presidential campaigns, and a Member of the European Parliament. The panelists will discuss current, and especially future, opportunities and challenges in EU-US relations and how both sides of the Atlantic can cooperate in 2017 and beyond, no matter which party wins the election in November.
US Secretary of State John Kerry and Federica Mogherini underlined this cooperation in their comments after meeting on Monday in Brussels. HRVP Mogherini remarked that, “there is no one single issue related to foreign and security policy on which we are not working closely together on a daily basis.” Secretary Kerry, recalling statements President Obama made in previous trips to Hannover and Warsaw this year, said, “The US-EU partnership is strong — strong today and will remain strong into the future. It is enduring and it is unbreakable.”
We are organizing these events at the Republican and Democratic conventions because the EU’s relationship with the United States is so important across a wide range of political, economic, and security policies and cooperation between us is essential to addressing shared global challenges. You can follow along and join these conversations through a live webcast of these events and on Twitter using #US2016EU and @EUintheUS.
We invite you to join us as the curtain goes up on the “greatest political show on Earth.” We will be watching and following along closely as well!
