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Which state is the 28th member of the European Union? Croatia, you suggest, that little Balkan state that hopes to join next year? Wrong. It is the United States, and it has been a member – de facto if not de jure – for years.

What is odd is that, although we all know it is true - we seldom think much about it. Only on the grand occasions of transatlantic summits does the rhetoric peal out. "Europe and the US can and should contribute toward the leadership, which globalisation needs. We need to think global and act transatlantic," proclaimed European Commission President José Manuel Barroso. "Collaboration between the EU and the US is critical," declared EU High Representative Baroness Ashton. "Our values, our interests, our multiple dialogues create an extraordinary basis for a strong transatlantic partnership," explained Council President Herman Van Rompuy.

When you get behind the rhetoric, you quickly discover how strong those interlocking interests really are. Between them, the EU with a population 500 million and the US with 300 million citizens make up barely 12 per cent of global population, but they produce more than half of the world's gross domestic product. They are both big, rich, sophisticated economies, and – despite growth rates in China and the rest of the BRICs (Brazil, Russian, India and China) – still no other economy compares with them. Some 20 per cent of their export trade in goods and nearly 30 per cent in services crosses the Atlantic. And they just cannot stop investing in each other's economies: half of US foreign direct investment goes to the EU and Europe makes up two thirds of FDI in America.

Googling down to state level - BP and Siemens are among the biggest employers in California, and the 143 US companies that are members of the American Chamber of Commerce directly employ between 4 -5 million people in Europe. The relation is for mutual benefit, despite periodic spats about the detail of some tariff or another. In economic terms it is rock solid.

Financially it is somewhat more competitive, since currencies determine general trade advantage. How well do the US authorities accept the growth of the euro as a second potential reserve currency? How long will the EU accept the pricing of commodities almost solely in dollars? But in recent troubled times, cooperation between the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank – and even including the Bank of England and the Swiss Federal Bank – has created a common interest among public financial authorities on both sides of the Atlantic, against the vagaries of the unsettled market.

So much for the economics, what about the politics? You can trust politicians and officials to make a business out of politics and EU-US relations are no exception. President Barack Obama, impatient at having to greet so many European Presidents at the annual summit meetings, undiplomatically skipped a recent one. Apart from that small hiccough, politicians keep several transatlantic jumbos full each year.

There is the senior level group of advisors and officials, the transatlantic legislators' dialogue, the transatlantic business dialogue and also the transatlantic consumer dialogue. Add to that the transatlantic economic council – including a new EU-US innovation dialogue – and the recently re-launched development dialogue, and you still have not accounted for the energy council, the transport and border security dialogue, the science and technology agreement and the education policy forum.

Many of these have spawned working groups on specific topics, so you have something resembling in a simplified form the labyrinth of the EU Council of Ministers' working groups, shadowing EU-US interests. Not surprisingly, when you consider the economic value of the interests at stake. The open skies agreement is just one example - where reciprocal liberalisation of airline ownership, the regulation of noise levels at airports, environmental cooperation in engine development, and flight security cooperation mesh EU and US interests ever closer together.

Universities play their part in disseminating this knowledge more widely, at least among elites. The EU supports 10 university centres of excellence in the US for the study of Europe and it stimulates policy research and debate by funding think-tanks. Non-governmental organisations can apply for grants to "Get to Know Europe", and young scholars and officials from the US are welcomed at EU universities and in the corridors of power in Brussels.

Such an aggregation of financial muscle also has its hard edge. The US very closely follows EU efforts to coordinate security and defence positions. And, at last, the EU is on the point of getting its act together with the High Representative and the European External Action Service. The US does not expect to have to pull the EU's chestnuts out of the fire for it again - as it did in the Balkans. North Africa and the Middle East is another test, though some argue that the Straits of Gibraltar link the Mediterranean to the Atlantic after all, and Egypt is closer to the US than it may seem at first sight. America may well have its own dog in this fight as well.

Clearly, the diplomats have plenty to do to keep track of these multiple contacts and interests across the Atlantic. Jean Monnet was himself instrumental in establishing a commission office in Washington back in 1961, and the Americans were active in support of European integration even before then. With the advent of the EEAS, the Washington representation of the EU looks set for bigger things still. And the US Mission in Brussels will not be far behind. It is already as large as the permanent representations of the larger member states – which helps confirm the contention that the US really is the 28th member state.

Martyn Bond is visiting professor of European politics at Royal Holloway University, in the UK, and deputy chairman of the London Press Club. This op-ed was first published on Public Service Europe