I am sure that, as the Chinese ambassador also emphasised during the meeting with us today, the US, the European Union and China will assume their responsibility when they sit down at the negotiating table and will lead the way in the efforts to achieve a new agreement guaranteeing the safety of future generations.

One fundamental distinction that can be made is between southern and northern Europe, i.e. between areas forming part of the so-called ‘wet culture’ - in which, according to an age-old tradition passed on through the generations from each person’s earliest childhood, wine is served with food, is something to be drunk with pleasure and to be taken in moderation, and forms part of the local cultural and traditional heritage - and the ‘dry’ culture - in which, as a result of the mood-changing properties attributed to alcohol and the fact that it is not consumed as a part of normal day-to-day patterns, alcohol is drunk outside meal times, ge ...[+++]nerally at weekends and in huge quantities for the purpose of losing one's social inhibitions and escaping the conformism and rigidity imposed by social mores.

The round table's purpose is to act as a catalyst in identifying, explaining and promoting the principles and practices we must adopt if we are to meet the needs of our generation without compromising the ability of future generations to live in a clean environment.

Here we are seeing something very contemporary, in wood and in glass, in that community centre that I was showing you earlier on, and which, for younger generations — because the people sitting around this table are not all so young, are we? — the fact remains that for younger generations, if they only associate wood with log-style cabins or armoires with diamond mouldings, I am not sure we are going to really inspire our generation which, it must be said, was raised in the presence of IKEA.