Stockholm, 22/06/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Union and Canadian leaders declared, on Thursday in Stockholm, their "firm attachment" to the Kyoto process against climate change and a common link, surprisingly detailed, on the next round of multilateral negotiations on the liberalisation of world trade. A two fold success for the Europeans, who at a given time confront them in their efforts aiming to rally a critical mass of countries to the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, recently damaged by the refusal from the new American Administration, and the launch, next autumn, of a round served by a "wide ranging" agenda. The Union and Canada, which this year celebrated the 25th anniversary of their official relations, also agreed to coordinate more closely their actions in areas as strategic as Nordic cooperation, non-proliferation and armaments control and the activities of the United Nations.
Finally, this meeting at the summit, between the Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson as the European Council President, the European Commission President, Romano Prodi and the Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, was also the opportunity for Ottawa to relaunch its idea of a free trade are, this time outlined by a forward looking study of the benefit procured by the total liberalisation of markets both sides of the Atlantic.
The joint declarations, which where adopted following the talks, cover:
1. The WTO. Europeans and Canadian say they attach "great importance" that a new "ambitious and balanced" round be launched with success during the Doha Ministerial Conference next November and that they translate the interests of all the members of the organisation, by aiming to: extend access to all markets for all; improve, enhance and clarify the existing rules; submit new sectors to multilateral disciplines. As well as to note that the idea of setting a wide ranging agenda receives an increasingly large support, by promising to work, with our partners, to find a consensus on this point. Then comes a long passage of developing countries, which the negotiators must support in their efforts to develop and help to take on the challenge, which they must face to integrate into the world economy, say the Europeans and Canadians, while promising to insist for the new decision to be taken quickly to answer their concerns in terms of the implementation of existing agreement and to explore, during the negotiations, other measures in favour of the enhancing of these countries capabilities. Finally, a few words on issue of concerns shared by the EU and Canada, the leaders undertake to ensure that the round answers the legitimate concerns of the public over the trade system, by contributing towards sustainable development and by allowing to reach other social objectives with a general nature such as the right, for each WTO member, to promote cultural diversity.
2. Climatic change. While the Europeans feared a reticence by Canada in the face of the risk of isolation in the powerful neighbour, a joint declaration came to confirm the undertaking by Ottawa to work alongside them in the achievement of the targets set by the Kyoto Protocol, starting with the Bonn meting next July, by following largely agreeing approaches except for a few points of a technical nature linked to the Protocol. For Mr Persson, the most important thing at present is to gather all the friend of the Kyoto Protocol and to ask them to ratify it and he welcomed with enthusiasm that the Union and Canada support it in full. We have decided to continue participating in a constructive manner, when they answer, in the negotiations within the framework of the 6th conference of the parties, in the aim of ruling on a complete and balance package of decisions covering the rules for the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol and support the countries that are prepared to established the ratification process, say the leaders in their declaration, while also agreeing to intensify their efforts to: noticeably reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases, implement their national programmes and learn from the market mechanisms and the new sustainable technologies. The EU and Canada, which assert that climate change represents an urgent global challenge also considered ways in which they could encourage other countries to make further efforts in this area and reaffirm their desire to help the developing countries to tackle the problem of climatic change. Representatives from the Union must soon go to Canada, as well as Japan and Australia, which all three call for a more flexible interpretation of the Protocol and whose support is considered crucial for the survival of this agreement. A stop over is also foreseen in the United States in July.
3. Non-proliferation, arms control and disarmament, a declaration, which underlines that concerns shared by the Europeans and Canadians over the status of the world arms control system and confirm their desire to see progress in the international agenda in these domains.
4. Cooperation in UN forums. Prior cooperation to events is planned and partners say they share the same views on implementation of the International Criminal Tribunal.
The leaders also adopted, for the first time, a document placing emphasis on the main aspects of cooperation between the EU and Canada, during the half year that has just ended It also identified other areas where they could keep up their dialogue until the end of the year and possibly extend cooperation. Such areas include: exploration of ways to contribute and alleviate problems linked to small arms and weapons of small calibre in Albania; confirmation of their "firm support" in favour of the Stability Pact; reinforcement of their coordination with a view to helping Ukraine to pursue reforms; the hope that a definitive decision will be taken on the approximation of legislation on privacy by their next Summit; aim of stopping at short notice the final version of the joint statement of intention covering the second phase of development and validation of Galileo (B2) and to begin the negotiation of the formal agreement before the end of the year; agreement to "collaborate with the LDC to enhance their health systems, support to efforts for prevention and guarantee a secure supply of medication and vaccines at affordable prices in order to stop the progress of AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in these regions.
As with trade in wine and spirits, where the Europeans wait for Ottawa to return the favour after the opening of their market to Canadian Icewine last 17 May, the two parties promise to work "actively" gain a negotiating mandate in view of concluding "satisfactory agreement as soon as possible" (that of the Commission should already be in the hands of the Council at the time of the Summit: Ed.).
Finally, the leaders rubber-stamped the progress report on the work on joint Nordic cooperation (with future initiatives and a Mechanism, which could allow to engage Russia) and another report on the progress of the trade initiative (ICCU).