Climate change package tops agenda at EU leaders summit

Germany, chief architect of the original package, is leading a push to thwart any deal which could jeopardize jobs at a time of recession ahead of elections next year.

 

Other European nations such as Italy and Poland have also voiced strong objections to the deal currently on the table.

 

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country holds the EUs rotating presidency until the end of the year, is keen to seal the climate change deal under his tenure -- along with agreement on a 200 billion euro (263 billion dollar) economic stimulus package, another major topic for the summiteers.

 

"Several elements remain open" on the climate package, he admitted ahead of the summit.

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Poland and its fellow eastern European nations are seeking special treatment as they are heavily reliant on high-polluting coal for their energy.

 

The fresh proposals suggested a new mechanism for sharing out CO2 quotas, with Poland and Romania getting a special allocation of 12 percent against the previously suggested 10 percent.

 

The EUs climate-energy package, the so-called "20-20-20" deal, seeks to decrease greenhouse gas emission by 20 percent by 2020, make 20 percent energy savings and bring renewable energy sources up to 20 percent of total energy use.

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A deal on the renewables -- wind, wave, solar power -- was sealed earlier this week.

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"I expect a very tough debate," Czech Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra said on the eve of the summit.

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One of the most controversial aspects of the climate change/energy package is the emissions trading system, whereby polluters can buy and sell their polluting rights.

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Under the scheme, industry will increasingly have to buy these rights from 2013 rather than receiving them for free as they do at present.

 

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, attending U.N. climate talks in Poland, said the outcome of the two-day summit in Brussels holds "great consequences for the whole world".

 

"We look for leadership from the European Union. The decisions currently being made by European leaders in Brussels are (of) great consequences for the whole world," he said.

 

LISBON TREATY HOPES

Ireland would be willing to hold a new referendum by October 2009 on the European Union’s controversial reform treaty in exchange for guarantees, according to a draft statement Thursday.

 

The decision, if confirmed at a two-day EU summit, would pave the way for the Lisbon Treaty to take effect by the end of next year.

 

"The Irish government is committed to seeking ratification of the Lisbon Treaty by the end of the term of the current commission," said the draft text, prepared by ambassadors for EU leaders. The mandate of the EU’s executive arm ends in October 2009.

 

Ireland, whose voters rejected the vast treaty of reforms in June, is constitutionally bound to ratify the text via a referendum. The other 26 EU member states have done, or are doing so, through parliament.

 

The rejection of the treaty, over fears it would deprive Dublin of a prestigious commissioner and concerns about interference in its military neutrality and abortion laws, sparked a major EU institutional crisis.

 

The reform package is designed to streamline the working of the expanded EU and reducing the number of policy commissioners was one of the many measures included.

 

In comments to German daily Die Welt, Irish European Affairs Minister Dick Roche said: "From a constitutional point of view there’s no other choice than a second referendum."

 

In Brussels, "we shan’t be as yet fixing a date for a new referendum. Well only do that once the concerns voiced by the Irish people who voted No in the first referendum have been addressed," he added.

 

At the summit, the leaders will underline that the treaty "is considered necessary in order to help the enlarged Union to function more efficiently, more democratically and more effectively including in international affairs".