EU leaders to focus on climate aid during summit

BRUSSELS — European Union leaders were facing tough talks Thursday about how much aid to offer developing nations to bring them into a new global climate change pact.

Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt — who is chairing a two-day summit in Brussels — said the EU’s credibility was on the line, and failure to reach agreement could jeopardize the U.N. climate conference in Copenhagen in December.

The Finnish premier agreed. “A good outcome in Copenhagen requires a concrete financial offer for developing countries,“ Matti Vanhanen said, insisting the EU should pledge its fair share to an annual global fund of euro100 billion ($150 billion) by 2020. “Developing countries will not move if there is no concrete offer.“

Under international pressure to put an aid figure on the table, the EU leaders will debate various funding recommendations — the European Commission suggests EU nations offer up to euro15 billion a year, while aid and environmental groups say Europe should be paying euro35 billion yearly by 2020.

EU negotiations on funding such aid collapsed last week as finance ministers disagreed over how to share the costs.

Poland and other poorer eastern EU members demanded their richer counterparts, including Germany and France, pay substantially more to a climate aid fund, saying they cannot afford to contribute as much amid the financial crisis. Warsaw suggested linking national contributions to past responsibility for adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.

The EU aid offer is widely believed to be key to resolving international deadlock over a new global climate deal to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

The world’s wealthy nations are seeking broad controls on emissions from all countries in the new pact. Developing countries say tough emissions limits would hamper their growth, and industrialized nations — who are responsible for much of the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere — should carry most of the burden.

The United Nations, environmental groups and even poorer nations themselves argue that a substantial aid package could help persuade the developing world to limit the growth of their greenhouse gas emissions.

Overshadowing the EU summit, however, are efforts get the bloc’s reform treaty fully ratified and to fill newly created posts, notably the EU presidency. Only the Czech Republic has yet to approve the document, which would streamline decision-making in the 27-nation bloc.

The EU leaders plan to hold their first debate on who should fill the new posts. Politicians have been lobbying behind the scenes over presidential candidates, with the front-runners including former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Luxembourg Premier Jean-Claude Juncker and former Irish President Mary Robinson.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown planned to make his case for Blair’s candidacy.

EU Parliament President Jerzy Buzek said Thursday the post should go to a woman.

Powers and tasks of the new EU leader have yet to be defined, and agreeing to a name is linked to negotiations on filling the other open jobs of foreign policy chief and 25 commissioners.

Meanwhile, leaders were working to overcome Czech President Vaclav Klaus’ refusal to sign the EU treaty until his country is offered an opt-out from the treaty’s Charter of Fundamental Rights. Envoys were drafting a last-minute opt-out for Klaus, who has voiced concern that the charter could be used by ethnic Germans to reclaim land they lost in the Czech Republic after World War II.