03/04/2001 (Agence Europe) - At his press conference at the plenary in Strasbourg, the President of the EPP/ED Group, Hans-Gert Poettering, backed the critical position of the Fifteen faced with a refusal of the Bush Administration to respect the Kyoto Protocol. The United States, he said rightly places emphasis on "burden-sharing" between itself and the Europeans in maters of defence, but this sharing must also be expected in environmental protection.