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CNN Live At Daybreak

Bush in Europe: President Begins Another Day With Mixed Reaction to Ideas

Aired June 14, 2001 - 07:14   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, let's go now to Gothenburg, Sweden, where the president is meeting with several European leaders.

CNN's Christiane Amanpour is there and joins us now -- Christiane.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Colleen, well, it's a sunny but very blustery day here in Gothenburg, and perhaps it's a taste of the kind of spirited discussion President Bush will find from his European allies.

The main issue, of course, that he's going to run into here in discussions with the Europeans is the environment, particularly the United States' unilateral withdrawal from the Kyoto environmental global warming protocol.

Now, earlier today, we spoke to the Swedish deputy prime minister, who said that while they welcome President Bush's latest olive branch on the environment -- they particularly welcome the fact that he now recognizes global warming is a problem -- they don't believe that putting more money into studying it is enough to deliver action, which, they say, is required now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LENA HJELM-WALLEN, SWEDISH DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER: Well, of course, it's important that we also hear from him that it is global warming. That's very important. But we think we have to stick to the Kyoto process because that has been negotiated for so many years. We can't start from scratch again; then we will lose up to 10 years. It is a question of survival, so we have not that time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: Certainly, the Europeans are hoping that with discussions, with face-to-face negotiations and talks with the Americans, they can convince the administration to come back to the Kyoto principle.

There are also many other issues on the table here: trade, defense and, of course, the issue of the missile defense shield -- Colleen. MCEDWARDS: Christiane, is there really a bigger gap now between what Europe says it wants versus what the United States says it wants, a bigger gap now with Mr. Bush than there was with Mr. Clinton, or is this as much an impression as anything else in these early days of the Bush administration?

AMANPOUR: Well, a little bit of both. Certainly analysts will tell you that they don't believe that there's been such a wide gap between the United States and Europe on substantive policy issues -- on defense, on trade, on this whole big issue of the environment, on the issue of the death penalty, and all sorts of things like that, even up and to and including talks with North Korea, peace keepers in the Balkans, the Middle East. There are many, many issues that they say they are surprised -- at the tone and the presentation of U.S. policy up to now.

However, on some of them, they're happy that they see the United States moving back towards some of the old policies, for instance, continuing to talk with the North Koreans. You know they announced that last week, that they would restart negotiations. Now, the United States is getting more involved in the Middle East; the United States had wanted to keep a hands-off policy on the Middle East. And they're hoping to bring the Americans around on their ideas about global warming and, of course, about what they fear will be weapons proliferation, if the United States goes ahead with this missile defense shield.

MCEDWARDS: CNN's Christiane Amanpour, thanks very much.

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