Brussels, 24/03/2014 (Agence Europe) - President Obama of the United States and the leaders of the European Union will declare unity on Ukraine and determination to sign an ambitious free-trade deal.
Brussels is buzzing ahead of the first official visit by President Barack Obama on 26 March, where, along with the president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, and the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, he will be attending the first EU-US summit since November 2011. They will spend no more than one hour fifteen minutes in talks because Obama has to rush off for other meetings, and will focus on three issues - the economic agenda and the talks over a transatlantic trade and investment agreement (TTIP), foreign policy cooperation and global challenges.
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Catherine Ashton, and Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht will back Van Rompuy and Barroso, and Obama will be accompanied by Secretary of State John Kerry and Trade Representative Mike Froman. “We have an excellent occasion to take stock of our relations, map the way ahead and highlight the strengths of the transatlantic relationship. The summit will highlight the significant contributions that the EU-US strategic partnership makes to transatlantic and global peace and prosperity, and will be an opportunity to support and promote our negotiations on the TTTP”, said Barroso before the summit.
Spotlight on Ukraine. The Ukrainian crisis and tense relations with Russia in the wake of its annexation of Crimea will be centre stage in the talks on global stability and security. On 24 March, White House spokesperson Jay Carney said the question would be top of the agenda. A European diplomatic source said on Monday that, a few weeks ago, they thought the talks would focus on Iran but, in the end, they will be examining the situation in Ukraine, explaining that any changes on the ground would impact on the talks. He would not comment on whether joint EU-US measures might be taken against Russia. Barroso, Van Rompuy and Obama are expected to discuss Ukraine on Monday evening in a G7 summit (Germany, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan and Canada) in The Hague on the fringes of a nuclear safety conference. A European diplomat said there was very close transatlantic cooperation on foreign policy issues. On Wednesday, European and American leaders are due to discuss Iran, the Middle East, Syria and the EU's Eastern Neighbourhood and Mediterranean policies, along with Africa.
Economic integration. Following the initial assessment by De Gucht and Froman of progress in the TTIP talks in February in the wake of three rounds of talks, and then another negotiating meeting on 10-14 March, Van Rompuy, Barroso and Obama will examine the question and give negotiating guidelines to the chief negotiators, explained a European diplomatic source. The leaders of Europe and the US will reaffirm their commitment and determination to achieve an ambitious transatlantic agreement. European diplomatic sources say that, rather than merely a trade agreement, it will be a deal to strengthen economic integration of two big markets that are already closely connected.
Last week, the EU and US said that steady progress had been made in the trade talks, that began in June 2013, in each of the three sections, market access, regulatory convergence and trade rules, but the talks now need to move up a gear and tackle the more controversial areas, as De Gucht explained after talks with Froman in February. Brussels and Washington have agreed to make a step change by the autumn and a fifth round of talks is due to take place in Washington before the summer break. In addition to the question of access to the agricultural and industrial markets, following an initial exchange of tariff offers in February, the EU and US will be working towards an initial exchange of negotiating offers for services and public contracts. They will need to decide on a mechanism for protecting investment, a controversial issue in Europe, and move closer on more complex areas like regulatory convergence for different industries, phytosanitary issues and health in general.
American gas. On Wednesday, Van Rompuy, Barroso and Obama will discuss energy security in the light of the crisis in Ukraine and the fight against climate change. The energy talks will be highly political, the leaders will be leaving it to Ashton and Kerry to thrash out technical questions at the EU-US energy council next week. Europe is hoping the TTIP talks will enable it to import shale gas from the United States in order to reduce reliance on Russian gas supplies. The EU and US leaders are expected to confirm their joint commitment to achieving a global agreement on tackling climate change post-Kyoto by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Diplomatic sources explained: “The summit will allow us to give a renewed common impetus to our efforts to work successfully toward an internationaly deeply binding agreement in Paris in 2015”.
Limiting data collection. A firm commitment to guarantee rights of recourse for Europeans similar to those for US citizens before US jurisdictions when their personal data are misused - this is what the staff of European Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Viviane Reding want from Obama's visit. “Ideally there would be a statement on this point but we don't know if this is going to be possible because it's a very full agenda”, said a source close to Reding.
The discussion on the follow up to the NSA phone tapping scandal - which was revealed last June by Edward Snowden - is likely to suffer from the current events in Ukraine, said a European source on Monday. The EU hopes to reaffirm its position to the US, however, and to talk to Obama about “the necessary limits” to the exercise of mass data collection as “safeguards to be highlighted”. Among other issues, the ongoing work will be discussed on the transatlantic framework agreement on personal data protection (concerning transfers in police and judicial matters like the PNR agreements) or the ongoing work on the review - called for by Reding - of the Safe Harbour agreement regarding US companies like Google. The review is expected for the summer. As the process is under way, European and US officials should not delay on the substance of these files, according to this source. The issue of whether to include personal data in the TTIP or not will no longer be on the agenda.
Another sensitive subject that the European side would like to raise is the issue of the US requirement for visas for Bulgarian, Cypriot, Romanian and Polish nationals (an agreement has recently been reached with the Czechs, who are now part of the visa waiver programmes). However, there again, “we are not expecting an in-depth discussion”. (EH, CG and SP)