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Transcript: Press Conference with President Bush and E.U. Leaders
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Yes, the oldest guy.
JUNCKER: As the commission is slow in decisions, I'll take the floor immediately.
President Barroso and myself, we were pleased with the meeting we had with President Bush, the vice president and a certain number of secretaries.
We informed our strongest ally of recent developments and events in the European Union. We are explaining in detail what were the meaning of the French "no" and the Dutch "no" in the recent constitutional referenda really are about.
We were informing the president on the budgetary (ph) issue. As you know, we were unable during the recent European summit to agree on the so-called financial perspectives for the period of 2007-2013.
JUNCKER: We made clear in our frank and open and friendly talks with the president that the European Union is not at its knees but that the European Union is playing the role it has on the international scheme; that we feel strongly committed to the relationship we have established with partners throughout the world, mainly with the U.S., the U.S. being not only a strategic partner but the most important partner we have not only as far as political strength relations are concerned but also as far as heart (ph) relations are concerned.
The European Union will table its decisions over the next coming months and (inaudible) on this treaty which is in place which allows the European Union to function in a proper way and not as proper way as the constitution would have allowed us to do. But the European Union is there.
We were discussing, which was of quite huge importance, economic reform in the European Union. We adopted a few months ago, in March, the mid-term review, the response strategy. This is a huge program of economic and social reform. It's clearly paving the way for a more competitive Europe, taking its part in the world's economic development.
We were discussing a certain number of monetary issues concerning both U.S. and European Union, discussing how our relations with other trade partners in the world and with other monetary players in the world.
In fact, the visit we paid to President Bush at the end of the Luxembourgish presidency of the council is a happy conclusion of this six-month Luxembourgish period.
In Europe, we had the pleasure of having President Bush with us in Europe on the 22nd of February.
JUNCKER: This was a huge signal that the president was sending to Europe. It was in the course of that meeting that, in fact, both the president and myself, we decided to call for this Iraq conference which would take place the other day in Brussels.
