24/09/2020 (Agence Europe) – Before taking off for Brussels for talks with the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, on the new Asylum and Migration Pact (see other news and EUROPE 12566/1), Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš criticised, on Thursday 24 September, the Commission’s proposal to raise the European Union’s emission reduction target for 2030 to at least 55% (see EUROPE 12561/5). “This proposal is absolutely unrealistic for the Czech Republic, we are not in a position to comply”, Mr Babiš said, according to AFP. These words echo those made a few days earlier by the Czech Minister of Industry and Trade (see EUROPE 12563/18). They foreshadow difficult negotiations, not only between Member States, but also later in interinstitutional negotiations (‘trilogues’). (DG)