Transcript: Press Conference with President Bush and E.U. Leaders

The following is a transcript of a press conference with President Bush, European Council President Jean-Claude Juncker and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso in the East Room of the White House.

BUSH: Thank you all. Please be seated. Thanks for coming. There'll be opening statements from the three leaders and then we'll take two questions from the American side, two questions from the European side.

I want to appreciate Council President Juncker and Commission President Barroso, High Representative Solana and the delegation for coming to the White House today. I really enjoyed our conversation and enjoyed our lunch. We've covered a lot of topics. And they're important topics.

During the conversation, our talks reminded me about the importance of our partnership and the fact that this partnership is based on common values and shared aspirations, a partnership that really has helped build a Europe that is whole, free and at peace.

The United States continues to support a strong European Union as a partner in spreading freedom and democracy and security and prosperity throughout the world.

My message to these leaders and these friends was that we want a Europe strong so we can work together to achieve important objectives and important goals.

And one of those important objectives and important goals is the advance of freedom in order to spread peace. We talked about the Middle East. We support the vision of two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace.

We talked about Iraq. This week in Brussels, the E.U. and the U.S. are co-hosting a conference of over 80 countries and international organizations to build support for a free and prosperous Iraq. And I want to thank the leaders for that important initiative.

I think it's an important signal for people to hear loud and clear, that there may have been past differences over Iraq, but as we move forward, there is a need for the world to work together so that Iraq's democracy will succeed.

We talked about Afghanistan. I appreciate the contributions of E.U. member nations to -- efforts of -- within Afghanistan. After all, 23 members of the E.U. are contributing troops in Afghanistan and 12 members of the E.U. are contributing troops in Iraq. And we appreciate those contributions.

We talked about the broader Middle East. We talked about the need for us to continually support democratic movements. We talked about the Ukraine and Georgia, as well as the Balkans.

The point is, is that we understand that democratic nations are nations that'll answer to the hopes and aspirations of their people and democratic nations are nations that will help us keep the peace.