EU/US Summit

Washington, 17 December 1999

 JOINT STATEMENT BY THE EUROPEAN UNION AND THE UNITED STATES ON NORTHERN EUROPE

The European Union and the United States recognise Northern Europe as a dynamically developing region. We reaffirm our shared commitment to promote security, stability and economic prosperity in the region, particularly by strengthening cross-border cooperation.

During the Finnish Presidency, the European Union and the United States held intensive consultations on deepening our cooperation on Northern Europe. We affirm the importance of engaging the countries of the region (the Russian Federation, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Norway and Iceland) and soliciting their ideas, participation, and collaboration in this effort.

We emphasise the need to draw maximum benefit from existing multilateral and regional fora such as the Arctic Council, the Barents Euro-Arctic Council, the Council of the Baltic Sea States and the Nordic Council. We recognise the importance of the Arctic Window of the EU's Northern Dimension in enhancing dialogue among the EU, the US, and the Arctic nations. We intend to invite each other, as appropriate, to events with potential for enhancing cooperation in Northern Europe.

We affirm that priority areas of EU-U.S co-operation include energy, environmental cooperation, nuclear safety, coordination with the international financial institutions, development of civil society and democratic infrastructure, legal reform and cooperation on law enforcement, and health and infectious diseases.

We emphasise, in particular, the need to continue multilateral and bilateral cooperation to enhance the operational safety of the nuclear power plants and to support the closure of unsafe reactors. We will intensify coordinated efforts in the field of radioactive waste and spent fuel management in Northern Europe. We also expect that the envisaged "Multilateral Nuclear and Environmental Programme in the Russian Federation" (MNEPR) could facilitate this cooperation and establish a legal framework for efficient project implementation.

The European Union and the United States will continue our dialogue on Northern Europe under the aegis of the New Transatlantic Agenda (NTA), in order to enhance the effectiveness of our efforts, by identifying joint or parallel activities within our respective frameworks, the Northern Dimension for the policies of the EU and the Northern European Initiative of the US