Brussels/Washington, 02/07/2003 (Agence Europe) - The day after the transatlantic Summit in Washington, the United States gave cautious praise to the long-awaited decisions by the Union on the reform of its common agricultural policy. Had the Europeans "acted" a day sooner, we would have been able to make a joint statement on the Doha Cycle, "say something different, turn to the future", but "the Europeans were not prepared to say anything new on agriculture, THE key to the success" of these negotiations, emphasised the Department of State the same day, highlighting the agreement reached at the Summit on most of the issues raised.
The American officials were particularly quick to congratulate Commissioners Fischler and Lamy for the "action" undertaken "with the support of the Member States of the EU". The Europeans have just made an initial step forward, a "necessary" step, which may give impetus to multilateral discussions on the Doha Development Agenda. They must take the next, "critical" step soon to ensure the success of the whole of the World Trade Organisation's Cycle, i.e. the presentation of new proposals at Geneva with a view to reducing internal subsidies, said Trade Representative Robert Zoellick and the Secretary of State for Agriculture, Ann Venneman, in a joint statement. Such proposals, without which " the world will not be able fully to evaluate the impact of CAP reform", are "vital (...) for progress" in Geneva and then Cancun, because "agriculture is fundamental to so many countries", stressed American officials.
And if the Europeans regret the lack of transatlantic statement on Doha, "they have only themselves to blame: they were not at all ready to talk agriculture on Wednesday, it took them until the next day, so..." noted a high-ranking official from the Department of State. George W. Bush said so himself, confirms the same source: the long-awaited action is critical for the Europeans and Americans to be able to present a joint front in negotiations on the Doha Development Agenda, and for the President to be able to do "what he has to do"- what he has personally committed to do, as European sources indicated (see EUROPE of 26 June).
The Americans, too, have their regrets, especially Galileo. On this issue "which was raised by the President- we hoped to be able to make an announcement after the Summit, to say that we are prepared to co-operate on Galileo. But for the United States and for all members of NATO, security code M (the military code used in GPS) is a very important issue" and it remains so, said this high-level American official. "The European negotiators have not yet been able to agree to the basic concept, which is that overlay is not possible. In a large part of the spectrum, there could be a Galileo signal which overlays code M of GPS (the American global positioning system), and which uses the same signal, as originally proposed by the Commission", said Washington. The President and his team told the Europeans: "Whatever you do with Galileo, do not configure it on code M, we will not be able to support you if you do" and "gave them possible alternatives. We need to separate the spectrum between Galileo and the GPS military code". George Bush himself said to Mr Prodi, Mr Simitis and Ms de Palacio; "please understand our military needs here". "It was an appeal, a request to the Commission and the Presidency", said a source close to the discussions. Ms de Palacio reassured Washington that "we understand your security concerns. We do not wish to cause NATO any security problems". She continued: "we appreciate the sentiment reflected by this statement". Discussions will now continue at technical level "and if that does not allow us to solve the problem, we will discuss it again at political level".
On the controversial GMO dossier, Mr Lamy, whose "frank talking is similar to that of the President", asked him outright to stop linking famine in Africa and American deliveries of transgenic food aid, said the same source. "It was quite brave of him to do it so directly. The President will respond", said a source, who noted that the reasons behind Mr Bush's repeated appeals subsist, in particular: the fact that the Union's position weighs heavily upon that of African countries, some of which "are copying" the non-scientifically based position, and are worried that they will not be able to export to the European market if they have this kind of crop. The other reason given is that "the NGOs, many of whom get a fair amount of funding from Brussels, are bringing considerable pressure to bear on African governments to stop them from authorising these imports. All of these we feel is unhelpful and inappropriate".
However, the main thing the American officials have taken away from this meeting is the "substantial progress made on many issues" (EUROPE of 27 June, p.3-5). "We want to use this Summit to show the importance of relations between the United States and the Union as a whole, and with its Member States", rather than coming back to "happy talk and hollow praise of our relationship (...) and the Summit provided concrete proof of the importance of this relationship", confirmed a Department of State source. "The President said that this is a very important relationship for the United States, he has spoken in public and in private about common values and objectives, the fact that when we work together, we have greater success than when we disagree", and that "we share an ever broader range of interests and responsibilities, from high-level policy on Iraq, Afghanistan, North Korea and non-proliferation, down to the type of phytosanitary mechanism to allow us to export poultry to Europe", said the same source. The source also described the launch of negotiations on open airspace with the Union "as a whole" as "great news", which, together with the signing of agreements on extradition and mutual legal assistance, "brings our ability to co-operate into the 21st century. These are specific, precise examples of the strength of our relationship".