Still4Hill

More high compliments for our Hillary. She is so loved and respected.

Remarks With EU High Representative Lady Catherine Ashton at the U.S.-EU Energy Council Meeting

Remarks

Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State

European External Affairs Section Headquarters

Brussels, Belgium

December 5, 2012

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HIGH REPRESENTATIVE ASHTON: I can safely say that you, Hillary, have been a special friend to the European Union in your four years as Secretary of State. Not only do you represent the best of diplomacy, but for me it’s been a great honor and privilege to get to know you and have the chance to cooperate closely with you. I wish you every possible success in whatever amazing thing you do next.

We’re here today for the fourth meeting of the EU-US Energy Council. Mr. Oettinger and I are very much looking forward to taking stock of what has been a very productive year in the work of the Council and to look ahead to setting priorities for the future. We see this council as an extremely valuable forum that operates at the highest level. It helps both the EU and I would say the U.S., to shape the policy and to respond to the challenges we face in energy and in climate change. We know that we need stable and transparent global energy markets if we are to ensure energy security. But we also have to work together on the long-term challenge of laying a foundation for efficient and sustainable use of energy. In particular, we’ll start looking at clean energy so that we can create economic growth and jobs and address the challenge of climate change.

So for me, I’m looking forward to a very productive afternoon. And as I began, it is a special pleasure to welcome you to the EEAS.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank you so much. Well, it’s a great pleasure for me to be here with you, Cathy, and to have a chance to see this building for the first time. I congratulate you on this beautiful building, and I enjoyed seeing a lot of the people who work here on behalf of the EU as we walked through the first floor.

And I am especially pleased that we could schedule this fourth meeting of the US-EU Energy Council, which is an example of the closer cooperation and new partnerships that have flourished between the United States and the EU over the past recent years. And that is a real reflection of your leadership, and I am grateful for the close collaboration that we’ve had on so many issues. Whether it’s this Energy Council or our recent trip together to the Balkans, we have been working so closely together, and I am grateful to you for everything that you have been doing that we’ve been able to participate in and support.

So I’m looking forward to our Energy Council meeting. As you said, this is an initiative we began in November of 2009, and I think it’s already demonstrated its worthiness. Our working groups have identified a lot of areas for mutual cooperation, and today we’ll be able to review the significant accomplishments and identify goals for our cooperation going forward. So thank you again for all of your leadership and in particular for hosting this meeting.