ENNISKILLEN, Northern Ireland — European Union leaders and President Obama on Monday announced the start of negotiations for a far-reaching trans-Atlantic trade deal, but French indignation over recent remarks by a high-ranking Brussels official created its own trade-talks sideshow here at the Group of 8 meeting.
President Obama said that the first round of negotiations would begin in Washington next month between the United States and the 27-nation Europe Union. “The U.S.-E.U. relationship is the largest in the world — it makes up almost half of global G.D.P.,” Mr. Obama said, adding that “this potentially groundbreaking partnership would deepen those ties.”
But France’s president, François Hollande, arrived in Northern Ireland expressing disbelief at comments made over the weekend by the European Commission president, José Manuel Barroso. In an interview with The International Herald Tribune/New York Times, Mr. Barroso had criticized France’s insistence on protecting its film and television industries as a condition of supporting the trade negotiations.
“I do not want to believe that the president of the European Commission could have made the statements about France, or even about the artists, that were made,” said Mr. Hollande, according to the Web sites of several French news organizations.
Mr. Hollande did not make an appearance in a steamy media tent here at the Lough Erne Resort, where President Obama and Mr. Barroso made statements about the trade talks along with Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council, and David Cameron, the British prime minister. French reporters said Mr. Hollande was busy preparing for his meeting later with the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin.
Aside from trade, the two-day Group of 8 meeting is likely to be dominated by tensions over how to deal with the crisis in Syria and to focus on measures to clamp down on tax evasion and the legal ruses used by multinational companies to limit their tax liabilities.
Mr. Cameron, the summit host, was by far the most effusive among the leaders who spoke about their trade ambitions. “We’re talking about what could be the biggest bilateral trade deal in history, a deal that would have a greater impact than all the other trade deals on the table put together,” he said.
A European Union-United States trade deal has been a longstanding ambition of policy makers. According to the European Commission, the executive arm of the 27-nation bloc, such a deal would allow European companies to sell an additional 187 billion euros worth of goods and services a year to the United States.
The angry French response highlights the sensitivity of the trade negotiations, which will aim to reduce trans-Atlantic tariffs and streamline regulations to stimulate economic growth in the United States and Europe.
On Friday, after a campaign by French artists and politicians, European Union trade ministers agreed to, at least initially, accede to France’s demands to protect the audiovisual sector. In his interview, Mr. Barroso had said France’s Socialist government was advocating an “anti-globalization agenda” that was “completely reactionary.”
Mr. Barroso’s comments were described as “scandalous and dangerous” in a statement Monday from the French Socialist Party.
In addressing reporters on Monday, Mr. Barroso took no questions and did not comment on the French backlash.
But speaking in Brussels, Olivier Bailly, a spokesman for European Commission, said that Mr. Barroso’s comments in the interview had referred not to the French government but to those who had made “made personal attacks” against him in the run-up to the negotiations. Mr. Bailly did not identify those concerned.
Some Europeans worry that, in response to the French objections, the United States will seek to exclude financial services from the talks, thereby reducing their scope significantly.
Mr. Obama acknowledged those concerns. “There are going to be sensitivities on both sides,'’ he said. “There are going to be politics on both sides. But if we can look beyond the narrow concerns to stay focused on the big picture — the economic and strategic importance of this partnership — I’m hopeful we can achieve the kind of high-standard comprehensive agreement that the global trading system is looking to us to develop.”
Officials said Mr. Cameron had sought to make the Group of 8 an intimate meeting, with leaders seated around a locally produced wooden table in a room with a series of paintings inspired by the local countryside.
The setting, in a remote part of Northern Ireland, posed acute logistical problems for organizers but also for those aiming to demonstrate against an event, conducted amid tight security. Several thousand people were expected to join a march on Monday, but officials said numbers were likely to be lower than initially predicted.
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