During Tusk's meeting with President Trump, the two leaders discussed foreign policy, security, climate and trade relations.
My feeling is that we agreed on many areas. First and foremost, on counterterrorism, and I am sure that I do not have to explain why. But some issues remain open, like climate and trade. And I am not 100 per cent sure that we can say today -we meaning Mr. President Trump and myself- that we have a common opinion about Russia, although when it comes to the conflict in Ukraine, it seems that we were on the same line.
However, my main message to President Trump was that what gives our cooperation and friendship its deepest meaning are fundamental Western values, like freedom, human rights and respect for human dignity.
The greatest task today is the consolidation of the whole free world around those values, and not just interests.
Values and principles first - this is what we, Europe and America, should be saying.
Full remarks
Remarks by President Donald Tusk at the panel discussion called "European (Dis)Union?"
On the G7 Summit and transatlantic relations
"I think that our meeting in Taormina as G7 is the best evidence that rumours about the decline of the west is a clear exaggeration. "
"I feel more optimistic now after the G7 meeting than I had personally expected, and this optimism includes relations with our new partners around the table and I mean especially with President Trump."
"My impression after this meeting is that cooperation among G7 members, including the transatlantic cooperation between Europe and the United States, can be easier than what we expected immediately after the elections in the United States."
On multi-speed Europe
"There is nothing new and nothing extravagant in talking about specific and different political or legal formats in the EU. First of all, the possibility of enhanced cooperation among a group of member states is foreseen by the treaties and the most spectacular examples of this enhanced cooperation could be the Eurozone or Schengen. It is quite natural for such a very complex political system like the EU to have differences and different levels of integration. We also have different political clubs like the Visegrad group, the Weimar triangle, the Benelux or the Nordic countries. My previous experience as PM is that they were and are very useful in the process when we are looking for a compromise."
"In fact, the real threat to the European Union today is not the different speeds, being two or multi-speeds, or the different levels of integration - this is already our political reality, it was always our reality and it will remains our reality in the EU. The real threat is the different destinations or different directions. For me the biggest problem in Europe is that we today have some political parties, some governments, politicians, media etc. who are questioning the essence of the EU, the essence of Europe. By essence, I mean the values of liberal democracy, freedom, tolerance, freedom of speech."
Full remarks
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