Brussels, 19/06/2006 (Agence Europe) - The annual EU/United States Summit will be held in Vienna this Wednesday 21 June, and will be attended by the American President George W.Bush and Secretary Of State Condoleezza Rice. The EU delegation will be led by President-in-exercise of the European Council, Wolfgang Schüssel, the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, European Commissioners Ferrero-Waldner (External Relations) and Mandelson (Trade), and by the High Representative of the EU for CFSP, Javier Solana. The Summit will close with the adoption of a joint declaration.
The political part of the Summit will be dominated by: - Iran. With the international community waiting for Tehran's response to the offer sent by High Representative Solana on 6 June, the EU welcomed Washington's change in stance over the uranium dossier and the "excellent cooperation" which has developed recently between the Europeans and the Americans with a view to reaching a negotiated solution to the problem, a European diplomat explained on Monday; -the Middle East. Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, currently on a visit to the region (see article below) will report back to the Summit on the results of her talks with the Israeli authorities and the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, mainly on setting up a Temporary International Mechanism (TIM) to channel direct aid to the Palestinian people. The Commission's proposals on this TIM now have the support of the Quartet, including the United States; - the detention camp at Guantánamo Bay. The EU will raise this issue during the general debate on the fight against terrorism, to reaffirm its view that the Guantánamo Bay camp is an "anomaly" which must be closed. Still under the anti-terrorism chapter, "it cannot be ruled out" (according to a diplomat) that the problem of secret CIA flights will be mentioned by the EU, even though the investigation procedures at the Council of Europe and the European Parliament are not yet finished; -visa reciprocity. Once again, the EU will ("forcefully", according to a European diplomat) will raise the issue of the visa obligations still in place for the citizens of 10 Member States (the 10 new States, with the exception of Slovenia, plus Greece) which are not yet part of the American "visa waiver scheme". In the name of reciprocity, the Europeans are calling for these restrictions to be abolished, and if they are not, the European Commission may propose to the Council to adopt counter-measures against the United States (such as the introduction of visa requirements for American citizens or for certain categories of people). In early July, the Commission is to present a report on this subject "and this report may be very negative towards the United States, unless there is real progress (towards an extension of the American visa waiver scheme to all Member States of the EU) at Wednesday's Summit", a European diplomat stated on Tuesday; - Iraq. "After a period of disagreement, Iraq has become the subject of cooperation between the EU and the United States", this same diplomat was pleased to note.
The economic side of the Summit will mainly be given over to energy, trade and the fight against counterfeiting (for more on trade and counterfeiting, see other article on page 11). On energy, both sides are planning to define common principles at their meeting in Vienna, on the basis of which they hope to develop strategic energy cooperation, Commission sources explained on Monday. The EU also hopes that it will be possible to include an important paragraph in the joint declaration of the Summit on the abolition of obstacles to Trans-Atlantic investment. They will also discuss climate change and, for the first time, Europeans and Americans will decide to create a framework for high-level bilateral dialogue to discuss climate change (even though the word "Kyoto" will not be mentioned in the joint declaration) and clean energy technologies. An initial meeting of this group is planned for the autumn, in Helsinki. Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner, the Austrian Minister for foreign affairs Ursula Plassnik and the American Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, will sign an agreement on higher education and vocational training.