Brussels, 22/11/2010 (Agence Europe) - According to José Manuel Barroso, the EU-United States summit held in Lisbon on Saturday 20 November, which was attended by the presidents of the European Council, the European Commission and of the United States was “intimate, friendly and focused”. Nor was the president of the Commission the only one to welcome the quality of the dialogue and friendly atmosphere of this lightning meeting (which lasted less than two hours), which has just closed a succession of meetings of the Atlantic Alliance. “The United States has no closer partner than the EU. The United States needs and wants a strong and united Europe”, said Barack Obama. Although the EU-US summit may have looked to those taking part like a moment of détente, this was partly because a deliberate decision was made not to discuss the disputes (trade, data protection, fundamental rights, etc) which overshadow the excellent understanding voiced by Barack Obama, Herman Van Rompuy and José Manuel Barroso.
In a joint declaration published after the summit, the three leaders called upon all negotiators to take advantage of the window of opportunity of 2011 to make progress and to conclude the Doha Round as quickly as possible. They call on the Transatlantic Economic Council to look into ways of improving transatlantic consultation prior to the adoption of standards and rules on new technologies. Among the objectives of a dialogue of this kind quoted the most often is the adoption of joint standards for electric cars. The Transatlantic Energy Council is called upon to promote greater cooperation in the field of green energies. It will report back in June 2011 on efforts made to speed up the exchange of information and scientific personnel and to develop alliances between the principal centres of excellence in the field of energy research on both sides of the Atlantic.
The United States and the EU confirmed the commitments made in Copenhagen and intend to push for “positive results” at COP 16 in Cancun. The leaders also called on the body for bilateral dialogue on development cooperation issues to draw up a working programme to improve the division of the work and the efficacy of aid, starting with a number of countries to be agreed upon jointly. This plan is to be ready by November 2011. Lastly, the three leaders decided to establish an EU-United States working group on cyber-safety and cyber crime. (O.J./transl.fl)