EU leaders brace for tough summit

[pampango]

Source: BBC

Climate change and the Lisbon reform treaty are set to dominate a European Union summit opening later in Brussels. The bloc's leaders will try to iron out their differences over how much each EU member should pay to help developing nations fight global warming.

On the eve of the summit, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, urged his counterparts to compromise on agreeing climate aid figures to developing nations.

The European Commission has recommended EU nations pay up to 15bn euros ($22bn; £13bn) a year from 2013 to developing nations to help them cope with climate change. Ahead of the Brussels talks, Danish Prime Minister Laks Loekke Rasmussen said he did not believe it would be possible to reach a workable deal on reducing greenhouse emissions for the eagerly anticipated United Nations' Copenhagen Climate Summit.

"We do not think it will be possible to decide all the finer details for a legally binding regime that conforms to international law," Mr Rasmussen said. The Copenhagen conference will attempt to hammer out a new global climate treaty to replace the UN Kyoto Protocol. But aid and environmental groups have said Europe should be prepared to pay more than twice as much.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8331125.stm