Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-04-25-Speech-3-008"
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"en.20070425.2.3-008"2
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".
I should like to begin by apologising for the absence of my fellow-Commissioner Mrs Ferrero-Waldner, who has had to go to the funeral of the former President of the Russian Federation, Boris Yeltsin.
Preparation for the summit have not yet been completed, and core issues in it are to include climate change and energy. Our aim is to get the United States to commit itself to a policy founded upon market mechanism and clean technologies as goals and on a global approach, and European endeavours to that end are founded upon the consensus achieved at the 9 March 2007 European Council, according to which global action is needed on our part in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The intention is that the forthcoming summit meeting should see European cooperation with America in this area advanced, and it is my hope that the declaration emerging from it will prepare the way for unambiguous positions to be taken by the G8 and by the UN conference on climate in Bali in December this year. We will also be discussing issues relating to energy security and energy efficiency and discovering common goals for the development of clean technologies and their short and medium-term applications.
On visa policy, we will, at the EU/USA summit, be calling on President Bush to push for all EU citizens to be allowed to enter the United States without a visa, in the same way as US citizens no longer require a visa in order to enter the European Union; we would very much welcome it if the USA were to extend the waiver of visas to all the EU’s Member States and thus put an end to the
discrimination against EU citizens.
We will also be urging the United States to agree to a solution for the forwarding of air passenger data to the United States that would satisfy the most stringent data protection requirements in a new framework that would replace the present transitional arrangements.
Not least on our agenda, of course, is to stress the need for closer cooperation in the fight against terrorism, and in doing this we will refer to our commitment to ensuring that such efforts will not conflict with our commitments to international law, for that is crucial if the measures we take together in this area are to have any credibility.
Mr President, honourable Members, the EU/USA summit on 30 April is a new opportunity to strengthen our political and economic ties with the United States of America, and so let me say something, briefly, about this Summit’s objectives.
Firstly, we will be working towards economic convergence across the Atlantic, for, accounting as they do for 40% of the world’s trade volume, economic relations between the United States and the European Union are among the most important in the world, yet, even so, they need an injection of new political vigour, and the dismantling of obstacles to trade and investment would be a major gain for our consumers and entrepreneurs.
It is for that reason that the Commission welcomes the initiative taken by Chancellor Merkel, who has spoken out in favour of a new and ambitious economic partnership between the European Union and the United States, one in which lawmaking institutions and regulatory bodies are to have their parts to play, with the participants in the summit exercising important supervisory and leadership roles.
The summit will see us mapping out specific policy areas in which we can achieve sustainable progress, including
regulatory cooperation on industrial goods, energy, innovation, financial markets and investments.
Secondly, in foreign policy, we will explore a number of key areas in which we have common ground with the United States, with which we will continue to cooperate closely in working towards stability, prosperity and the rule of law in Kosovo and in Afghanistan.
As members of the Middle East quartet, the European Union and the United States are working together in a constructive manner for the revival of a political process involving both the Israeli and Palestinian Heads of Government, and our willingness to negotiate with the government of national unity in order to support it will depend not only on that government’s policy, but also on whether or not it acts in accordance with the quartet’s principles.
The Commission has a particular part to play in the development of an international aid machinery for the Palestinian people, with the objects of supporting them and improving the way in which they are governed.
Another high-profile event at the Summit is to be the signing of the recently-concluded, and historic, open aviation agreement between the European Union and the United States, which will – on both sides of the Atlantic – yield economic benefits estimated to amount to EUR 12 billion and create something like 80 000 new jobs. At the same time, we shall be reiterating our commitment to the second stage of negotiations on a comprehensive agreement on air transport services, which will add to the economic benefits of the liberalisation of this important sector."@en1
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