Climate was the most important issue during this week's summit between the European Union and the United States. Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, representing the EU Presidency, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso and EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana, met with US President Barack Obama in the White House. The situation in Afghanistan, Iran and a new energy cooperation were also among the topics on the agenda, with a new EU-US Energy Council launched on 4 November in Washington.

Also announced this week was a decision to lift discriminatory measures against HIV-positive people travelling to the United States. The European Commission welcomed the decision, which followed the removal of HIV references from the list of communicable diseases. HIV positive-people will, from January 2010 onwards, be able to travel under the Visa Waiver Programme, which covers most, but not yet all, EU countries.

ENDS