It’s time for tough talking in bid to bridge the transatlantic gap

RELATIONS between the EU and the US have been little short of disastrous at times over the past two years.

The Americans behaved like petulant children subjecting commissioners to public body searches at US airports, having candidate countries sign up to US penned letters adding to the EU split on Iraq and assigning minor officials to meet senior EU people visiting Washington to name but a few of the slights.

Even yesterday, on the eve of the annual EU-US summit being billed as a fence-mending exercise, President George W Bush returned to a former theme accusing the EU of starving Africa because those countries are reluctant to accept GMO food from the US. They blame Europe's attitude that insists on extensive testing and labelling for this.