The impossible partnership - premises and reasons of the failure of the Atlantic declaration

During the Cold War, the most important attempt to carry the concept of transatlantic unity into effect was proposal of the Atlantic Declaration in 1973. The objective of this article is to present the origins and the breakdown of this plan. As the most serious transatlantic divergences concerned the economy, it can be stated that the idea aimed at regulation of trade and monetary issues according to American interest. The Europeans were reluctant to sign the document, which joined economic matters with the political and defence aspects of cooperation. The fiasco of the Atlantic Declaration was a proof of decline of the US hegemony.