Arrivals and roundtables for EU summit
(26 Mar 2004) ++PLEASE NOTE: SHOTS 1 + 2 ARE MUTE++ 1. Motorcade with Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern arriving 2. Ahern getting out of car and entering building 3. Various of German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder arriving 4. Various of outgoing Spanish Prime Minister Jose-Maria Aznar arriving 5. Various of British Prime Minister Tony Blair arriving 6. Blair entering building 7. Various of French President Jacques Chirac arriving 8. Chirac entering building 9. Wide of meeting room 10. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi seated and being patted on the head 11. Bertie Ahern seated next to European Parliament President Pat Cox 12. Wide of delegates seated 13. Aznar seated 14. Various of 15. Tony Blair speaking to Javier Solana, EU Foreign Policy Chief 16. Chirac shaking hands with Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller seated next to Schroeder 17. Pan across delegates STORYLINE: European leaders arrived for a second day of talks in Brussels on Friday, to discuss ways to boost growth and create jobs, focusing on ways to cut government red tape and open up more economic sectors to competition like transport and energy. The 25 European leaders, including those from the 10 countries that will join the union on May 1, were discussing ways to create jobs and make European business and workers more competitive, with pledges to implement more reforms. They also were to cover foreign policy issues including Iraq, Kosovo and the Middle East over lunch. On Thursday the leaders agreed to tough new counterterrorism measures and relaunched stalled talks on a European constitution, spurred by a renewed sense of unity after the deadly rail bombings in Madrid. The leaders picked former Dutch government official Gijs de Vries as the bloc's first anti-terror czar to bolster the continent's defense after the March 11 bombings in Madrid, which are suspected to have been carried out by Islamic radicals. De Vries will coordinate work done by the EU's foreign affairs and interior departments in an echo of the US Department of Homeland Security, which was created in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks. On the topic of a European constitution, Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, the summit host, said leaders agreed to try for a deal by June 17, six months after the draft was supposed to have been approved. Ahern, whose country holds the EU presidency, will pursue one-on-one negotiations with a view to sorting out the most divisive issues before convening another summit. According to Ahern about 20 items remained to be resolved, including the size of the EU's executive commission and the number of European Parliament seats. The constitution is meant to streamline decision making in a bloc of 25 nations and bolster its role on the world stage, with the creation of an EU president and foreign minister. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: / ap_archive Facebook: / aparchives Instagram: / apnews You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...
