European Union leaders on Thursday stuck to a December deadline for reaching a final deal on fighting climate change after Polish threats of a veto were won over, officials said.
”The objectives remain unchanged and the calendar remains the same. It is now up to [European Commission] President [José Manuel] Barroso and myself to find solutions for those countries that have expressed their worries,” said French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who chaired the summit in Brussels.
In March 2007, European Union leaders pledged to cut the bloc’s emissions of carbon dioxide (the gas most linked with global warming) to 20% below 1990 levels by 2020.
The EU’s executive, the European Commission, in January proposed laws to put that pledge into effect, giving each country a target for cutting emissions based on its carbon-dioxide output in 2005.
But a row over the need to agree on the laws as soon as December threatened to torpedo the Brussels summit declaration, with Poland and Italy threatening to veto it if the deadline were not jettisoned.
”It was a very full discussion last [Wednesday] night and this morning, but we agreed that the principles agreed in 2007 and 2008 are those to follow and we agreed that we have got to come to a decision in December,” British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said.
As the summit opened on Wednesday, Poland threatened to veto the draft summit declaration, saying that its concerns over the economic effects of the proposed laws had not been taken into account.
Seven other EU newcomers from Central and Eastern Europe backed that call, accusing the commission of not taking their earlier efforts on climate change into account.
Italy joined the revolt, arguing that it would be too expensive to implement the laws given the present financial crisis.
On Thursday morning, the French government proposed a new resolution sticking to the December deadline but promising to take into account the specific situation in each member state.
The council of EU member states ”requests the presidency and the commission to organise intensive work over the next few weeks in order to find appropriate responses to the challenge of applying the [climate-change] package … having regard to each member state’s specific situation”, the text read.
Polish diplomats said that reference to member states’ differences would be acceptable.
That sets up the EU for two months of intensive negotiation as the presidency and commission try to win over the sceptics.
”Intricate work must be done … so we can reach an agreement,” Brown admitted after the meeting.
”We confirmed the date. Don’t underestimate the difficulties that lie ahead,” Barroso warned.
The EU is desperate to reach a political deal on the detail of the laws in December so that it can bring them into force before global talks on fighting climate change in Copenhagen in December next year.
Poland is set to host a precursor to those talks this December. — Sapa-dpa