Luxembourg, 24/04/2007 (Agence Europe) - Before the EU/United States summit in Washington on 30 April, Europeans and Americans are finding it difficult to agree on environmental and energy-related issues, admitted Germany's Foreign Minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, on Monday. Addressing his counterparts, Mr Steinmeier took stock of progress in talks with Washington with a view to adopting a document in three chapters (energy and environment, transatlantic partnership and international issues) during the summit. He said that talks are making good headway at economic level but “the going is tougher on climate change and energy”. During debates, some, like the United Kingdom and the Scandinavian countries, were adamant about moving forward on global warming, for which the EU wants to take a leading role, one European diplomat said. In the same way, he added, countries of Central and Eastern Europe, as well as Greece, hoped a strong political signal would be given on the visa waiver programme. Although the environmental chapter remains the most difficult to finalise, that on the economic aspects of relations does not really pose a problem. Given the large number of international issues tackled (covering practically all regions of the world, including the Middle East, the Balkans, Cuba, Latin America, etc) there is still a need for some adjustment. (ab)