U.S.-EU Summit Shows Trans-Atlantic Partnership Going Global
Washington â€" When President Bush welcomes European Union leaders April 30 to the White House for an annual summit, officials say the leaders will showcase how half a century of trans-Atlantic partnership has created a wide-ranging partnership on a host of political, security, and economic issues.
(Media-Newswire.com) - Washington – When President Bush welcomes European Union leaders April 30 to the White House for an annual summit, officials say the leaders will showcase how half a century of trans-Atlantic partnership has created a wide-ranging partnership on a host of political, security, and economic issues.
“We're working today with the EU on the full range of global challenges,” Judy Ansley, director for European affairs at the National Security Council, told reporters at an April 26 White House briefing.
The summit comes one month after Europe celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, which laid the framework for regional security and prosperity through the creation of a common market.
“The EU has been a force for positive change not only in Europe, but around the world,” Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said in a March 26 speech commemorating the event. “At home, the European Union has succeeded in uniting a war-torn continent economically and politically. Abroad, it has succeeded in promoting its core democratic values so that other nations and regions might follow its inspiring example.”
On the foreign policy agenda, Ansley said, the leaders will take stock of progress made through their global partnership on advancing democracy, security and human rights.
On European policy issues, Bush, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso will focus on efforts to resolve the final status of Kosovo and assess ways to promote freedom in Belarus, which she called “Europe’s last dictatorship.” The leaders also will consider how to expand intelligence sharing between the United States and Europe to track more effectively terrorist cells and covert efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction.
Turning to the Middle East, Ansley said leaders will discuss the U.S.-EU partnership to help resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; efforts by the United States and the EU-3 – France, Germany and the United Kingdom – to answer questions about Iran’s nuclear ambitions; and the ongoing joint work to help Lebanon recover from the August 2006 conflict.
Ansley said that the leaders will discuss military operations in Afghanistan, where NATO is leading nationwide peacekeeping operations under the International Security Assistance Force, as well as Iraq, where several European countries are engaged in helping the democratically elected government emerge from decades of dictatorship.
Another priority for leaders, Ansley said, will be expanding cooperative efforts to deliver humanitarian aid, facilitate economic development and promote human rights in Latin America and Africa. Of particular concern to all the leaders, Ansley said, was finding a way to stop the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Sudan’s western Darfur region. ( See related article ).
On the economic front, discussions will focus on global trade talks, deepening trans-Atlantic trade ties and addressing global climate change, said Rod Hunter, NSC senior director for international trade, energy and the environment.
Europe and the United States, he said, consider a successful Doha [world trade] round essential to maintaining global economic growth, especially for developing countries. Also essential to continuing growth, he said, is streamlining and expanding trade cooperation between the European Union and the United States.
Discussions on climate change, Hunter said, will center on promoting new technologies designed to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and that also can promote new economic opportunities. These discussions will help start framing future international discussions on climate change this year at the Group of Eight ( G8 ) Summit in Germany, June 6-8.
“There is, I think, general agreement about the importance of developing the innovative technologies which will help us transition” to fewer greenhouse gas emissions with less burden on the economy, he said.
A transcript of remarks by Ansley and Hunter is available on the White House Web site.
( USINFO is produced by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov ) By David McKeeby USINFO White House Correspondent
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