President Bush Meets with EU Leaders, Chancellor Merkel of t

April 30, 2007,1:18 P.M. EDT,PRESIDENT BUSH: Thank you all, please be seated. Welcome to the Rose Garden. I want to welcome Angela Merkel and Jos Barroso here. Thank you all for your friendship, thank you for what has been a serious set of discussions.,I told the Chancellor¹ and the President that the EU-U.S. relations are very important to our country, that not only is it important for us to strategize how to promote prosperity and peace, but it's important for us to achieve concrete results. And we have done so. I thank the Chancellor and Jos very much for the trans-Atlantic economic integration² plan that the three of us signed today. It is a statement of the importance of trade. It is a commitment to eliminating barriers to trade. It is a recognition that the closer that the United States and the EU become, the better off our people become. So this is a substantial agreement and I appreciate it., We also talked about Doha. And I thank Peter Mandelson and Susan Schwab for briefing us. The first thing I told the group in the Cabinet Room was that I am firmly dedicated to a successful Doha round. I believe it's in this country's interests that we reject isolationism and protectionism and encourage free trade. I'm under no illusions as to how hard it will be to achieve the objective, but the first thing is there must be a firm commitment by the leadership to get a deal.,Secondly, I reminded the people that this country is dedicated to working to eliminate poverty and disease, and the best way to help the developing world is through a successful Doha round. We told our trade ministers work hard, work often, work constructively, and I believe we can be successful. We're committed to reducing our agricultural subsidies in order to advance the process. We expect others to follow suit and market access.,Anyway, I am optimistic we can achieve the objective and today's meetings gave us a chance to discuss a way forward.,We talked about the visa waiver program. We talked about Iran and the need for our nations to continue to work closely together to send a unified message to the Iranians that their development of a nuclear weapon is unacceptable to peace.,We talked about Darfur. We talked about Afghanistan and Iraq. And I appreciate very much the EU support of the international compact that will be meeting on Iraq here in Sharm el-Sheikh. We talked about Cuba and the importance for Cuba to be a free society, a society that respects human rights and human dignity, a society that honors the rule of law., We also talked about climate, and here we share a common interest: One, we recognize that we have a problem with greenhouse gases; two, we recognize we have a problem with a dependence on oil; three, we recognize that we can use technologies to help solve this problem; and, four, we recognize we have an obligation to work together to promote the technologies necessary to solve the problem, and encourage the developing world to use those technologies.,And so I found the discussion refreshing and interesting, and I appreciate the candid conversations we had.,Madam Chancellor, welcome back here to the Rose Garden, and I'm looking forward to your comments.,CHANCELLOR MERKEL: (As translated.) Thank you, Mr. President, dear George. Thank you for the hospitality. Thank you for the hospitality you accorded to the European Union, and also for the fact that you made it possible to hold this summit meeting between the EU and the United States of America, which already has a very good and rich tradition.,It was a very interesting debate and one that was actually -- we were talking about a lot of issues -- about transatlantic economic integration, obviously first and foremost. And let me thank you very warmly for the fact that we've been able to enjoy such substantial progress in such a relatively short time. That was only possible because the American administration -- but in particular, you, Mr. President -- were behind, full-square behind this project, and because we not only agreed on general frameworks, but on very concrete projects.,And I think that's exactly what the people in our country expect from us, all the representatives of our respective business communities. They ask us what can we do in order to really pool our resources and make sure that we work on one and the same level playing field as regards, for example, our shared values. So I am confident that what with the Economic Council that we have set up, we will be able to make progress on very concrete projects, for example, mutual recognition of standards and other areas. It is, as I see it, a significant step forward.,I would also like to thank you for the progress we've been able to make on climate and energy issues. There is a common basis. We are aware of the fact that we do have a problem here, that we need to solve this problem. There are different approaches, obviously, as to how to solve that.,But we have been able, actually, to find a lot of common ground. And one of the issues we talked about, for example, was a commitment of the United States of America to introduce 20 percent biofuels over the next few years to come, until 2020, and to have this at their disposal. And for that, too, we need to develop a common market, common standards which, as I see it, has been, again, giving a more -- a very important impetus to that particular industry and that technology., Now, on climate, we will also need to work on this in view of the upcoming G8 summit where we will make it clear, as European Union, as United States of America, that we don't want to isolate ourselves or shut ourselves off against the rest of the world, but where we want to enlist the support of others, invite them to join us.,And I also note that the trade talks have been taking place here on the margins of this meeting. They also, obviously, will then have to take place in a more wider group, the multilateral group. Let me just tell you, this agreement between the European Union and the U.S. is not in any way against free trade. No, not at all. And what we need to do here is really to look at the larger picture, and I feel it's good that the President is committed to make a step forward also on reducing non-tariff barriers to trade. All of the partners will have to be in on this, but we will do our bit to make this true.,I don't want to go through the whole agenda of international issues. And let me just tell you, it was an open and candid discussion that clearly showed us that we need to work together, that diplomacy can only be successful if we stand together, be this on the Middle East, on other issues.,And let me tell you that we have been talking at greater length also about the situation in Darfur, which we consider to be totally unacceptable, and that we need to do everything we can in order to help the people there on the ground who suffer immensely because we have not made progress so far, and that we ought to use all of our possibilities in order to achieve progress also in the United Nations.,Thank you yet again for your hospitality, for the commitment that I think the number of documents that we have been able to agree on here today show it's a good day for EU-U.S. relations.,PRESIDENT BARROSO: The exchange, the one we had today, covering the whole range of European Union-United States relations, and also some international issues. President Bush and Chancellor Merkel already mentioned the basic points, so let me just underline one or two that I believe are specifically important, namely in terms of economic relations and also on climate.,On economic relations, we signed very important framework for advancing transatlantic European integration. This was already welcomed by the business community on both sides of Atlantic. Our economic relation is by far the most important in the world. Transatlantic trade in goods and service totals over 1.7 billion a day. But we can work together more to make that relation even easier. And I believe there is some untapped potential, namely if we can achieve more regulatory cooperation, in some cases regulatory convergence, put down some barriers to trade and investment on both sides, and to fight, of course, protectionism and isolationism that sometimes happens on both sides of Atlantic, as well.,So this is, indeed, a very important agreement, and an agreement that also brings with it a transatlantic economic council to be a permanent body, with senior people on both sides of Atlantic as we look at all those issues in a concrete manner, in which way we can make it move forward.,On the European Union side, I decided to appoint Vice President of the Commission G nter Verheugen as our leading personality in that council.,Another important point linked with this, to be signed later this afternoon, is the Air Transport Agreement. It is a very important first-stage agreement on air transport, but it also brings with it the same idea of putting, in an easier footing, the relations, economic relations, people's relations between the United States of America and the European Union. And I think it's also very important, is by far the most important, in terms of air traffic liberalization since the convention of Chicago so many years ago.,But trade, we also welcomed very strong statement that President Bush made during our meeting just now. We are very committed to successful conclusion to Doha round. We believe we can do it. We should do it. It would be good for trade, for the economy globally, but also for developing world, and also for having all the main players in a true multilateral system for trade. So we are going to make efforts to get that done.,Regarding climate, I really welcome the fact that there was progress in this meeting. We agree there is a threat, there is a very serious and global threat. We agree that there is a need to reduce emissions. We agree that we should work together. That's why I decided to have a forum where we are going to address many of these issues, namely technology and other issues that are important to fight climate change. And let's be frank, without the United States and Europe working together, we cannot engage others so that we can have a real global effort to face this very important threat to our economy, but also to our security.,So climate and energy security are important in the agenda. And I'm very happy with the progress that we have achieved in this meeting today.,Once again, President Bush, George, thank you very much for all the preparations and all the support you are giving, personally, to these very deep and strong relations.,PRESIDENT BUSH: Thank you, Jos . Two questions for the three of us, starting with Terry.,Q Mr. President, you're about to veto a bill that would force troop withdrawals from Iraq. How much of a voice are you willing to give Congress in the way that you conduct the war?,PRESIDENT BUSH: I am about to veto a bill that has got artificial timetables for withdrawal. That's not the only bad thing about the bill. It also imposes the judgment of people here in Washington on our military commanders and diplomats. It also adds domestic spending that's unrelated to the war. I have made my position very clear -- the Congress chose to ignore it, and so I'll veto the bill.