The following is an edited version of President Bush's statement after the EU/US Summit:
I congratulate the nations of Europe on the enlargement of your Union at 25 members. With this historic achievement you are erasing the last traces of the Iron Curtain, and creating a new beginning for the continent.
Tomorrow I will travel to Turkey for the NATO summit - actually, today I will travel to Turkey. \. Tomorrow is the NATO summit. Turkey is a proud nation that successfully blends a European identity with the Islamic traditions. As Turkey meets the EU standards for membership, the European Union should begin talks that will lead to full membership for the Republic of Turkey.
Europe and America are linked by the ties of family, friendship and common struggle and common values. We're also bound to each other by common responsibilities.
Because we met our responsibilities in the last century, we realised the vision of a continent that is whole, free and at peace. As we meet our responsibilities in this new century, we will defeat the forces of terror and help to build a freer, safer, and more prosperous world.
The advance of freedom led to peace and prosperity in Europe, and it can do the same for the wider world. And so our alliance is looking beyond the borders of Europe to support the momentum of freedom in the broader Middle East. The people of that region are eager for reform, and we are listening to their voices.
Earlier this month, the nations of the G8, four of them members of this Union, pledged their energies and resources to working in partnership with the peoples of the broader Middle East to advance the universal values of human dignity, freedom, democracy, the rule of law, and economic opportunity.
A free and democratic Iraq is rising in the heart of the broader Middle East.
We just concluded a constructive discussion on our common efforts to help the Iraqi people achieve the stability, prosperity and democracy they seek. As Iraq moves toward the transfer of sovereignty next week, the EU and the United States are united in our determination to help the people of Iraq.
We also discussed the many actions our nations are taking to secure our homelands from the threat of terror. We took new steps to strengthen our efforts to freeze and block terrorist finances. And to make travel and transportation safer, we established new guidelines for sharing airline passenger records to improve the way we screen for terrorists while protecting the privacy of innocent travellers. We agreed to increase and improve the sharing of information and intelligence. We pledged to build on this progress by launching a new dialogue on transportation and border security. Travel between our nations is the lifeblood of our friendship, our economies and our alliance, and our travel system, must not only be safe, but efficient.
Earlier today, we also signed an agreement that ensures compatibility between America's global positioning system and its future European counterpart, Galileo. This agreement will protect our common security, improve the delivery of emergency services, and further our economic co-operation. This was a hard agreement to make, and because we worked together, we now have an agreement. The two systems will be compatible and interoperable.
The US and EU share a fundamental interest in the health of the global economy. Our trade and investment relationship is the largest in the world, one that creates millions of jobs on both sides of the Atlantic.
Yet we're always exploring ways to make it stronger, and we did so in these meetings. Lowering trade barrier increases the prosperity of all our nations. And so we're looking at new ways to open markets on both sides of the Atlantic. Free and fair trade has the power to lift nations out of poverty.
So we reaffirmed our commitment to the Doha Development Agenda, which seeks to remove obstacles to global trade and growth in the developing world. As I said, tomorrow I'm going to go to Turkey for the NATO summit. Today I'm going to Turkey - tomorrow is the summit. [laughter].
I look forward to working with our European allies on many of the same issues we addressed here in Ireland. The unity of the transatlantic alliance in the face of new challenges and the advance of freedom in the world - that's what we're going to talk about.
NATO continues to transform itself to meet the new threats of the 21st century. The NATO mission in Afghanistan is helping the people of that country establish democracy after years of tyranny. And NATO has the capability - and I believe the responsibility - to help the Iraqi people defeat the terrorist threat that's facing their country.
I look forward to discussing NATO's response to Prime Minister Allawi's request to help train Iraq's new security forces.Together, we can forge a new relationship between NATO and the Iraqi people.Taoiseach, this has been a very useful summit. I appreciate your leadership.I appreciate President Prodi's leadership, as well.
I look forward to working with the nations of the European Union to increase our common prosperity, to strengthen our common security, and to advance our common interest in the spread of liberty.