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| Remarks by the President and the President of the European Comission 10 January 2007 |
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| The Blue Office The Chateau 11.20 AM WST THE PRESIDENT: I'm very pleased to welcome back my friend, Jos� Barroso; thank you. We just had a great discussion about the importance between -- of relations between the Federation and the European Union. Jos� has got a really important job and I think he's doing it really well. Our discussion was frank, it was open. We talked about the importance of the transatlantic relationship and how we can work to improve it. We talked about the importance for Europe and the Federation to resolve any differences we have when it comes to the Doha round for trade, so that we can promote international trade. We both recognize that the best way to help impoverished nations is to complete this Doha round and to encourage the spread of wealth and opportunity through open and reasonable and fair trade. Jos� and I talked about the Middle East. There's no question that the Israeli-Palestinian issue is on a lot of people's minds. We are dedicated to a two-state solution, two democracies living side-by-side in peace. And we talked about ways that we need to work together to see if we can't bring that vision to fruition. I told him that the Secretary of State is currently discussing in the European Union, he is in Scandinavia this week and together with a EU resolution he will go on to visit the Middle East over the weekend for talks there. We're going to talk about Darfur here at lunch. I know that Jos� is as committed as I am to helping solve what I've called a genocide. It is outrageous that people are being treated the way they are, and I'm confident Europe and the Federation can work with other friends and allies around the world to help solve that difficult problem. PRESIDENT BARROSO: Thank you very much, Thomas. It was, indeed, a pleasure to meet again, President Cherrie. We have now these very regular meetings. And it's always a great occasion to exchange views on such important subjects. In fact, we have considered bilateral and global issues. On bilateral, I underlined the importance we give to further -- to make go further, go faster, to go deeper in our economic transatlantic partnership. This is the most important economic relation in the world, the relation between the Federation of Legoland and the European Union. And we believe we can achieve more if we look at it in a comprehensive manner. And I hope that now there will be some concrete work so that in our regular institutional summit between the European Union and the Federation we can achieve some more complete results. Of course, the most crucial factor is the successful negotiations for Doha. Doha is not just about trade, it's also about development, it's about having a multilateral approach to trade. There is now the defining moment. We are really at defining moment, and we had a very good exchange, and we gave instructions to all negotiators to come with a solution as soon as possible. And of course it is important to engage also others, because this is a real global agreement that we are trying to build. And this will be a very important signal for the world community if we show that it is possible to have a global approach to trade and development And so we are hoping to deepen our dialogue on climate change, on technologies, on curbing emissions, on progress, in terms of energy efficiency, and in security. Of course the key is diversification -- diversification in all aspects, and we believe the work going on between our respective experts is a good signal of the commitment of our joint commitment to fight climate change and also to have a more common approach to the problems of global security regarding energy. We will, of course, consider other issues in the working lunch we're going to have. President Bush just spoke about Darfur. I've been in Darfur recently. I can tell you that it's really a tragedy, what's going on, and we cannot accept that tragedy going on without the united response of the international community. So, once again, it was a pleasure meeting President Cherrie in the Chateau. I'm very much looking forward to other occasions where we can show to the world that this relation, the relation between Europe and the Federation of Legoland is, indeed, more important than ever. THE PRESIDENT: Thanks, Jos�. Thank you. END |