Race to repair EU-US summit as White House rewrites agenda

Date: 08/06/06

EU officials and their counterparts in Washington were this week attempting to patch up preparations for the EU-US summit on 21 June after they were thrown into disarray by White House objections.

Last week the White House insisted that the meeting should agree concrete objectives for transatlantic co-operation, according to EU officials.

The main items for discussion when US President George W. Bush meets Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Sch�ssel and Commission President Jos�anuel Barroso in Vienna are energy co-operation, trade and the strategy towards Iran's nuclear programme.

Officials from the Commission and the Austrian presidency had negotiated conclusions for the meeting with US officials. They included a short, single declaration on areas that both sides agreed were common priorities.

The aim of a single declaration was to avoid the tendency in previous summits to agree up to eight separate declarations leaving the impression that the annual meetings covered all ongoing issues between the EU and US but did not focus on current priorities. One official described this practice as the summit's usual "tour round the world".

But following a meeting in Vienna between the two sides in May, EU officials were shocked to hear from the office of the National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, which had been taking the lead in the negotiations, that the White House wanted "operational recommendations" and "action plans" for initiatives in the Middle East and other regions.

Several member states, including France, are opposed to high visibility projects where the EU is seen acting alongside the US. "The EU doesn't want to align itself with joint actions," said one diplomat.

According to an EU official, this led to three "crisis meetings" between the two parties in an attempt to bridge the differences. The two sides communicate regularly by video-conference link.

Officials said that a discussion on 6 June made "progress in narrowing some of the differences" but admitted "it's been a difficult process".

Diplomats said they still expected the summit to agree a single declaration together with 10-12 pages of conclusions. Some of the other issues would be addressed in accompanying annexes.

A US official said he thought that there would be a "workable document" in time for the summit.

One EU official said that it was "inevitable" that different parts of the US administration had different views.

The main focus of the meeting will be energy co-operation, foreign policy co-operation, especially on Iran, and trade issues including the state of the World Trade Organization negotiations and the need for open investment regimes.

EU officials said that the discussion on energy would depend on the progress made by EU leaders on energy issues at their summit meeting on 15-16 June in Brussels. If the leaders backed the approach outlined in the recent Commission-Council paper on the external aspects of energy policy it would help to develop a strategic dimension to policy with the US.

The paper calls for greater co-operation with consumer countries like the US to help address the problems of increasing demand for energy supplies.

Officials predicted that a recent European Court of Justice ruling that it was illegal for airlines to transfer passenger data to the US was likely to come up in Vienna as the US side would want "reassurance" about how the Commission would handle the issue.

The EU may also assert its belief that the Guant�mo camp for suspected terrorists is an "anomaly" for a country such as the US and call for its closure, as announced by Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik last week.

Sch�ssel may also call for the US visa waiver programme to be extended to all EU citizens.

At the Vienna meeting the two sides will sign an accord on higher education and training, while there could be agreement on an action strategy for enforcing intellectual property rights.

Article reports on preparations for the EU-US summit on 21 June 2006. The main items for discussion at the meeting between US President George W. Bush, Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel and European Commission President José Manuel Barroso in Vienna were energy co-operation, trade and the strategy towards Iran's nuclear programme.

• Primary Source

EEAS: Countries: United States of America http://www.eeas.europa.eu/us/index_en.htm

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