It’s been 14 years since the construction of the European Union, an entity designed to give one voice to 27 member countries.

Kyle Galley summed up the inner-workings of the EU within those years in one sentence:
“What we do in the European Union is argue all the time,” Galley said.
Galley was the keynote speaker for Wednesday’s Martin Forum “The EU-U.S. Economic Relationship.” The University of Idaho Martin Institute, a center created to bring speakers, courses and special programs to UI that advance research and education of causes of global conflict and resolution, presented the forum.

Galley is a member of the EU Fellowship Program, an outreach program located in Brussels, Belgium, that sends seven to 10 officials from various parts of the EU to the United States. Officials conduct research and teach about the European economy as well as structural reforms, economic growth and how to make markets perform better.
About 50 students attended the forum held in the Silver and Gold Room in the Student Union Building. Galley presented a slide show detailing the main points of his 45-minute speech.

In his talk, Galley said arguments about the state of the economy have always been on the EU agenda, but now attempts are being made to improve the economy on a global basis.
The EU first started working internally, he said. Then in 2000, it released the Lisbon Agenda, a plan to become the world’s most competitive, dynamic, knowledge-based economy.

From 2001-2005, the EU saw little progress toward its goal. A review published in 2005 showed the EU had 135 targets it was trying to pursue at the same time. Revisions were made, and the EU started to put more focus on growth and jobs. Galley said attempts were made to energize education and get people connected outside of Europe technologically.
“Innovation will drive our growth by making us more competitive,” Galley said. “We are not going to be able to compete with low-end education and manufacturing costs.”

One important point of Galley’s speech was the need for cooperation between the EU and the United States.
He said it’s a well-known fact that the United States and the EU are world leaders economically. Together, they make up 10 percent of the world’s population, 40 percent of world trade and 60 percent of the Gross Domestic Product. Galley said these statistics are astounding.
“We are in a position of great leadership,” Galley said.

Trade between the United States and the EU grosses $500 billion per year.
“That’s $1.4 billion per day,” Galley added.
With the EU and the United States working together, they can feed off one another’s expertise, he said.
“Everyone should be a winner.”

Greater cooperation between the EU and the United States would enhance competition, Galley said. He said he would like to see both entities working to ensure similar ideas about how competition should work. These ideas could then be spread around the world through globalization.

“Globalization is an opportunity, not a threat,” Galley said. “We need more international cooperation to steer the economy in the right direction.”
After Galley’s speech, questions were asked about the effects of globalization on developing countries. Galley said globalization would benefit developing countries because their products could be sold to a worldwide market.

“We don’t call developing countries ‘developing countries’ for fun,” Galley said. “It’s because they are growing so rapidly.”
Galley said globalization would only aid this growth.
“If we can get the global conditioning right, we can all benefit,” he said.

In order for globalization to work, Galley said there must be a level of harmonization and a set of common standards.
“If you’re going to invest money all around the world you have to make sure places are regulated.” Galley said. “If you haven’t got proper regulation, you’ve got nothing. … We must impress upon people that the systems we have work well and that people can benefit.”

On April 30, there will be a EU/U.S. summit. Major themes for this summit will be regulation, energy and climate change. Galley said regulatory negotiations can go on for a long time, but with issues like energy and climate change there is only a small window of opportunity, another reason why outside cooperation is so important.
“The EU can’t work alone,” Galley said.

Bill Smith, director of the Martin Institute for Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution, said the forum was the sixth put on by the institute this school year. The forums — nine in all — address a variety of international issues, he said.
The next forum will be at 7 p.m. April 19 in the SUB Ballroom and will feature Olympic gold medalist skier Nikki Stone in her talk, “Sport for Development and Peace.”

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