Finally, there is the disaster in Asia, which we have just been discussing, and which is a clear illustration of the need for good cooperation between the European Union and the United States when such calamities strike. The acknowledgement of the central role of the United Nations in coordinating aid, something to which many of you referred and which the European Union advocated from the outset, has been an encouraging sign in that the Americans very quickly came to accept it.
. Señor Presidente, en primer lugar quiero pedir disculpas en nombre de la Comisaria Ferrero-Waldner.