The EU and the United States held the sixth meeting of the EU-US Trade and Technology Council (TTC) in Leuven, Belgium. The meeting allowed ministers to build on ongoing work and present new deliverables of the TTC after two and a half years of cooperation.

The ministers agreed on:

1. Advancing transatlantic cooperation on AI, 6G, critical and emerging technologies

• Artificial intelligence: reaffirmed their commitment to a risk-based approach to AI and support for safe and trustworthy AI technologies, which will help find solutions to global challenges, and announced a new Dialogue between the EU AI Office and the US AI Safety Institute
• 6G: adopted a common 6G vision setting out guiding principles for this technology and signed an administrative arrangement for research collaboration
• Semiconductors: extended for three years the two administrative arrangements that enable building resilient semiconductor supply chains
• Emerging technology standards: released a Digital Identity Mapping Report to identify opportunities for transatlantic interoperability and cross-border use of digital identities

2. Promoting easier, more sustainable and more secure trade on the transatlantic market

• Sustainable trade: reaffirmed the importance of the Transatlantic Initiative on Sustainable Trade and agreed to publish a Joint Catalogue of Best Practices on Green Public Procurement, to accelerate the deployment of publicly financed sustainability projects
• Easier trade: agreed to facilitate digital tools in trade, coordinated and aligned the technical standards for e-invoicing systems
• Clean energy: welcomed the publication of recommendations for greater transatlantic compatibility in e-vehicle charging infrastructure
• Critical minerals: advanced negotiations towards a Critical Minerals Agreement to strengthen EU-US supply chains in critical minerals for electric vehicles batteries, and welcomed the launch of the Minerals Security Partnership Forum
• Economic security: reaffirmed their shared concerns about the challenges posed by economic coercion and non-market practices employed by third countries, resolved to continue their efforts to de-risk and diversify their trade and investment relations, and to continue work on facilitating secure high-technology trade

3. Defending human rights and values in a changing geopolitical digital environment

• Gender-based violence: developed a set of joint principles on gender-based violence on online platforms
• Democracy and human rights: reaffirmed their support to democracies around the world and to combatting foreign information manipulation and interference, and published joint Recommended Actions for Online Platforms on Protecting Human Rights Defenders Online
• Data: committed to facilitating data access from online platforms and published a report on mechanisms for researcher access to such data

The issued Joint Statement further summarises the outcomes of the ministerial meeting in Leuven. For more about TTC and its work, please see the below enclosed factsheet.