Brussels, 24/03/2010 (Agence Europe) - The external chapter of the EU climate strategy after the disappointing outcome of the Copenhagen conference (COP 15, 19 December) will be the focus of the attention of EU heads of state and government in Brussels on Friday 26 March. The issue, overshadowed by the Greek budget crisis at the extraordinary informal Council of 23 February, will be duly debated, as full-time Council President Herman Van Rompuy announced in February. Time is of the essence since UN negotiations resume, at expert level, in April (Bonn, 7-11 April).
Heads of state and government will be called on to “look at how a new dynamic can be brought to the negotiation process. Whilst keeping our objective of a legally binding agreement, we should agree on a more step-by-step approach, in order to help get the negotiation process back on track,” says Van Rompuy in his letter of invitation.
“It is not about amending the negotiating brief that was agreed last year, but about deciding how we could strengthen the new dynamic of the negotiations. This involves working to a more flexible timetable, over two years, and making some kind of gesture to other countries by trying to find common ground that could bring success in negotiations,” said a European source.
High Representative for Foreign Affairs and EU Security Policy Catherine Ashton will contribute to the debate, setting out for European leaders her point of view on the best ways to bring increased engagement on the part of the EU's main strategic partners. This is what Climate Action Commissioner Connie Hedegaard is seeking to do, in consultations with key partners, such as China, the United States, Mexico and others.
Nothing revolutionary is expected of this transition European Council, given that it will only be at the European Summit on 17-18 June that the Council will have to hand the comparability study on parties' commitments on CO2 reductions by 2020, the updated impact study on increasing the EU target from 20% to 30%, and, perhaps, the European Commission's detailed report on the energy-intensive sectors that would face a significant carbon leakage threat (the Commission has been asked to submit this report by 20 June 2010). The possible adoption of border adjustment measures, so dear to France's heart, but ruled out for the moment, will depend on the findings of this report. Nevertheless, climate change remains “high on our agenda”, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso told Parliament on Wednesday. He added, “The EU has been in the lead and we still are … So let us move on from soul-searching about Copenhagen and take the initiative once again. We need a clear, unified and ambitious position”.
The European Council is expected to confirm on Friday that it fully backs the negotiating process within the framework of the UN ands the EU's determination to make use of all meetings with third countries to build as many alliances as possible.
It is also likely to recommend that a road map be drawn up at the forthcoming UN meetings in Bonn (in Paris and then from 21 May to 11 June), and that operational decisions are adopted in Cancún. The EU will further reassure developing countries, highlighting the fact that the EU is committed to spending the €2.4 billion per year which it promised developing countries for the period from 2010 to 2012 (as part of an overall total of $30 billion over three years as agreed in the Copenhagen Accord). That, according to Mexican minister Juan Rafael Elvira Quesada and future chairman of the Cancún conference, one of the levers for progress in international negotiations (see EUROPE 10098). The European Council will certainly also speak of the collective commitment to mobilise $100 billion per year for developing countries from 2020.
In their discussions, heads of state and government will build on the points of agreement at the Environment Council which, on 15 March, approved, with some fine-tuning, the strategy proposed by the Commission on 9 March for achieving tangible results in Cancún (COP 16, 29 November-10 December) and bring as many parties as possible on board for an global, ambitious and binding agreement, more probably in 2011 than in December of this year (see EUROPE 10099 and 10094).
The European Council will also work from the conclusions of the Ecofin Council of 16 March which, while confirming the EU's commitment to mobilising €2.4 billion annually for the three year period from 2010 to 2012 to fund adaptation and mitigation in developing countries, called on the other parties to clearly state their contributions to this fast-start funding (see EUROPE 10100). (A.N./transl.rt)