U.S.-European Union: A Post-Summit Readout

MODERATOR: Good afternoon and welcome to the Foreign Press Center. This afternoon, we're very pleased to have Ambassador C. Boyden Gray, the U.S. Ambassador to the European Union, who will give you a readout on today's summit between the United States and the European Union. He'll start with a short review of what happened and then he'll be happy to take your questions. Ambassador Gray, thank you very much.

AMBASSADOR GRAY: Yes, I suppose you're going to want to be more interested in answering questions of me -- asking questions of me rather than me talking, so I'll just say very briefly that the meetings went very, very well and there was a great deal of unity and energy over the transatlantic framework agreement that was signed on deepening the economic relationship. A lot of positive feedback from the business community already, so that, I think, is really going to be a major, major development over the course of the next decade.

This is only the beginning. The proof will be in the pudding. And so the next few months will be key and hopefully, the media -- you and the media will keep us honest on this, but I do think it's the basis for something that's really going to be very, very important. Again, reiterated commitment to the Doha round; very, very tricky negotiations coming up; I mean, if one starts to go into details, one could spend the next 45 minutes talking about it, but a very, very strong commitment from Barroso, Merkel, and President Bush to get it done. And I'm hopeful -- I'm confident it's going to happen, but I'm probably more optimistic than some people.

Then on the political issue, diplomatic issues, I think not much disagreement, really; unity across the board on almost every -- on just almost every issue. And I think climate change, of course, is one that you may be interested in, so you can ask questions, but I think that -- a lot of conversions on climate change in the last month or two. This is not the last of the discussions of climate change. There will be a G8 meeting, obviously, next month or in early June and then another meeting in Indonesia in December, just to give you a couple coming up.

So this is something which is developing, but there's enormous conversions that's taking place right now. So with that, I'll open it up to --

MODERATOR: If you would raise your hand, identify yourself, and wait for the mike, I will -- right there, yes, sir.

QUESTION: Thank you, Desmond Butler with the Associated Press. Both sides really highlighted what they called progress on climate change issues. If you had to summarize what this convergence you mentioned was in the last two months in very concrete terms, what would it be?

AMBASSADOR GRAY: It's basic consensus that energy policy and climate change are flip sides of the same policy coin and once that realization set in on both sides, it has made the dialogue much, much easier and much more productive. And Chancellor Merkel is very taken, for example, with President Bush's Biofuels Initiative to cut gasoline use by 20 percent by 2017.

It was motivated initially on our side, on this U.S. side by energy and security concerns, but it has equally important climate change consequences and this is something which the Europeans have now fully understood and the depth of collaboration is hard to exaggerate between the two sides on biofuels and on clean coal technology as well.

MODERATOR: Yes, sir.

QUESTION: Thank you. Andrey Surzhansky, ITAR-TASS news agency of Russia. Mr. Ambassador, in his annual address to the Russian parliament, Russian President Putin announced the suspension of Russia's participation in the CFE --

AMBASSADOR GRAY: Conventional Forces?

QUESTION: Yes, Conventional Force in Europe Treaty. I'm wondering if this subject came up during today's discussion and what the position of the U.S. Administration on this. And secondly, if I may, I'm sure you're aware of the tensions between Russia and Estonia, which is a member of EU. Did anyone raise this subject during today's discussion and --

AMBASSADOR GRAY: I don't think the Estonia issue was raised, but of course, the Russian response on missile defense was discussed and the President acknowledged his debt to Chancellor Merkel, who had given him advice: You should really talk more aggressively with the Russians about sharing what we're doing and asking them to participate.

And this is why Secretary Gates went to Russia last week. The response was not only great last week at a NATO meeting and Europe's response back was quite firm, pushing back on the Russians for not being more friendly to talk about where this is going. So I can't tell you where it's all going to end up, but it did come up and there's no daylight between the U.S. and Europe on how to deal with this issue. I think there probably was. I think there were pockets in Europe saying, you know, "Well, what is the U.S. doing?" And we were probably a little slow months back in explaining what we were doing, but I think there's a full court press now to make this more transparent for Russia and for Europe.

MODERATOR: Yes.

QUESTION: Rudiger Lentz, Deuteche Wella television. My question goes to the character of the framework agreement. Is that legally binding? I mean, you are a lawyer by profession or is it just a memorandum of understanding with no legal binding? And the second question is -- I mean, the Clinton Administration in the '90s tried as well to create a common European/American marketplace and Mickey Cantor failed after four years of tries. So why are you convinced that this time the whole project will fly?

AMBASSADOR GRAY: Okay, and that's a good question. No, this is not legally binding. The airline agreement, which we think is sort of a prototype of what can be accomplished, is legally binding. But it's hard to legally bind yourself to engage in legally binding behavior. I mean, this is a political agreement. I think it will be politically binding if we can make it work over the course of the next year to show that it will really work, this new structure that's been created, then I think it will be politically binding. Legally, no, this is not a formal Executive agreement and, of course, it's not a treaty. It doesn't involve Congress.

Why do I think it's going to work? Well, because what differentiates it from what happened before is this is regulatory. It's not trade, not tariff, not subsidy. This is looking to reduce regulatory hurdles to investment and trade. And I think that what's been identified -- this transatlantic economic council and evolving round. I think structurally, we've identified points of accountability in the White House and in Brussels and the commission that will give this thing the kind of accountability that you can look -- and the private sector can look and NGOs can look, the business community can look and say why haven't you done this, why haven't you done that? That, I think, is the difference and I do think it's going to work and I think you'll see results.

And just two examples; the airline agreement is, I think, an example and partly an inspiration for this. The transatlantic dialogue on financial services is another -- really more example than target -- and I think that will begin to yield more results as time goes on, as our SCC and the European regulators talk more and do more in the field of mutual recognition. I think this is going to be a really very good development.

MODERATOR: Yeah, Markus.

QUESTION: Markus Zeiner, Handelsblatt Germany. Could you elaborate a little bit more on the Open Skies agreement and especially on the phase two, I think there are still a couple of sticking points in this agreement, especially if it comes to the voting stock of -- and there's a cap of 25 percent. So this is just the first step, I understand?

AMBASSADOR GRAY: This is just the first step. Nothing has changed about the second step, which will -- I don't know when those negotiations start, but it's all a matter of public record. And nothing about the second step is altered by what was talked about today. But you know it's going to take place. It's going to go forward and there's no reason to be skeptical of the outcome, I don't think. I think what was done with the airline agreement is really, really far-reaching and I think it's an example of what we can expect under this new economic integration proposal that Chancellor Merkel initiated and then really persisted with.

QUESTION: I'm Brian Beary from Europolitics. The Visa Waiver Program came up, I believe. Can you talk a little bit about that? In particular, the link that's being made in the U.S., I believe now between adding countries to the Visa Waiver Program and then getting them to pass on passenger name record to air passenger data and that the concerns of making this link is causing in the EU, did that issue come up at all today?

AMBASSADOR GRAY: Yes, but all I can say is that what's happening now is up to Congress. And the President's made his proposal. Congress is now looking at it. It's very, very sensitive for the Europeans. This is well understood in the Executive Branch. And I -- in some ways, I want to say direct your questions to the Congress because they're the ones who control the outcome. They write the rules in this instance and we are living under rules that have been written by the Congress and the Congress has to change them.

And for Europeans, since we don't have a parliamentary system here, it's been a little bit difficult to explain because we don't control the Congress even when it was in Republican hands and we certainly don't control it now that it's in Democratic hands. So you really ought to direct your questions to the relevant congressional committees. And it's in now -- it's in the legislative process and it's hopeful -- we're hopeful that it will come out right at the end of the process.

MODERATOR: We have a colleague in New York -- our telephone is not working, so they have given us this question and it's a question about Turkey. And it's simply, was the situation in Turkey -- Turkish membership in the EU discussed at all today?

AMBASSADOR GRAY: No. No, Turkey -- I'm just trying to think -- no, Turkish membership did not come up.

QUESTION: (Halic Mila, Kosovo TV21) Did they discuss about Kosovo and the final status, anything? And if they did, what -- it was discussed?

AMBASSADOR GRAY: Well, it was discussed. It's very important for both sides of the Atlantic. And I think the bottom line is we all hope that there is a good UN resolution that comes out that will permit the process to go forward and a lot of nervousness if there isn't -- you know, if there isn't -- if we don't get a UN resolution and I can't really go beyond that. We'll just see what happens.

MODERATOR: Daniel.

QUESTION: Yeah, Daniel Anyz, Hospodarske Noviny. I have a follow-up question to the visa waiver because some of the old European countries feel uneasy about some of the security measures which are now in the bill which is in Congress. And basically, those security measures reflect what the Administration would like to have in the bill. So was it -- this on the agenda, discussing some of the security measures are like, difficult to fulfill?

AMBASSADOR GRAY: Not in detail, no, not in the kind of detail you're asking.