Brussels, 07/07/2008 (Agence Europe) - In the columns of the Sunday Telegraph of 6 July, Peter Mandelson, reacting to criticism by the French President Nicolas Sarkozy (EUROPE 9694-9695), warned that "public disagreements at critical moments in a global negotiation come with a cost to [Europe's] ability to defend [its] interests ". "In both Europe and the United States, there is increasing rhetoric about the need to protect people from change, some of its sincere but much of it populist and self-serving (...). I want President Sarkozy and other world leaders to accept that securing trade is an important part of the solution" to current international economic problems, wrote the European Trade Commissioner. "Europe cannot view the future of world trade solely through the lens of agriculture and agricultural subsidies. The prosperity of Europeans ultimately depends on the competitiveness and strength of our industrial goods and services", he continued, concluding: "the task for our leaders is to bring Europe together to help us shape globalisation in the interests of all”. The Trade Ministers of the EU will meet in Brussels on 18 July to define the position to be defended by Mr Mandelson at the WTO at the ministerial meeting to be held in the week of 21 July in Geneva
(EUROPE 9691). (E.H./trans.fl)