Brussels, 06/06/2008 (Agence Europe) - The EU/US summit to be held on Tuesday 10 June in Brdo (Slovenia), attended by George W. Bush (his last summit), will result in a highly consensual joint declaration that will highlight the “positive development” of transatlantic relations rather than the very real differences persisting on a number of major issues, such as climate change or visa policy, European Commission sources hinted on Friday. The Brdo declaration will nonetheless take stock of all subjects to be discussed by the leaders, namely: - state of play in transatlantic relations, with, in particular, presentation of the first report after the setting in place, in 2007, of the Transatlantic Economic Council (TEC), which is to help abolish non-tariff barriers to trade and investment between the EU and the USA; - extension of the visa waiver programme (VWP) to all countries of the EU; - climate change; - energy supply security; - the Doha Round (WTO); - fight against terrorism; - Iran's nuclear programme; - Syria; - Russia; - Georgia; - Western Balkans (especially Kosovo); - Afghanistan; - Pakistan; - Middle East; - Latin America (in particular Cuba, Venezuela, Columbia); - Burma; - and Africa.
On climate change, perhaps the main bone of contention between the EU and the Bush Administration, the summit declaration will be far from as ambitious as Europeans would have liked. As a senior official from the Commission explained on Friday, Washington is opposed to the text acknowledging the importance of setting binding and “quantitative targets” at the international level for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The Americans also reject the European request to acknowledge, in the joint declaration, that the emissions peak compared to the reference year 1990 should be reached within 10 years and that emissions should then fall constantly to reach the targets agreed. Finally, Washington has also successfully prevented the declaration from recognising that developed countries should lead the process in combating climate change. The United States would like to see countries such as China, Brazil and India take the same commitments as itself. Given all these points of divergence, the summit's declaration will most probably be restricted to pointing out the importance of an international agreement under the auspices of the UN in 2009. America's future climate policy - whether under the presidency of John McCain or of Barack Obama - is difficult to predict, the Commission official says, nonetheless asserting that both candidates seem to be in favour of setting targets.
On the subject of the Doha Round (WTO), it is the Europeans who are slowing the process down. Washington has suggested that the summit declaration note how urgent it is to reach an agreement in Geneva “under any circumstances” before the end of the year and Mr Bush's departure, the Commission official explains. “I think the EU will resist this kind of formulation”, he said, as the result of negotiations must live up to expectations.
Generally speaking, the Commission notes that President Bush's second mandate was far more propitious to the development of transatlantic relations, given that the US administration has become “less unilateral”. “Since 2005, the US Administration has sought much more systematically our opinion and support”, the European official explained. In the past year, momentum has slowed down a little as the Bush administration, dominated by a Congress with Democrat majority, has become a “lame duck”. (H.B./transl.jl)