EU likely to push for comprehensive accord with US

The EU is likely to push ahead more urgently on agreeing a comprehensive and sometimes controversial trade agreement with the US after President Barack Obama said it would open the door to imports of cheap American gas.

Europe needs to take tough decisions, such as allowing fracking, to decrease its energy dependence on Russia, Obama told EU Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso and president of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy.

At what was described as an intense and cordial 65-minute meeting over lunch, the two Europeans and the US President stated their positions on the Russia threat, NATO, energy, climate change and the economy. They also explained their difficulties in getting 28 member states to agree to anything on the one hand, and getting a Congress facing mid-term elections to play ball on the other.