Brussels, 07/07/2005 (Agence Europe) - The G8 Summit was soured by the attacks in London, which at the dawn of achieving a minimalist “consensus” on climate change, continued its work on Thursday in Gleneagles, but which was deprived of its president, momentarily absent from discussing this burning issue.
Before flying to London, the bilateral meeting between Mr Blair and US president George Bush, allowed the latter to announce a “consensus” on the most controversial issue of the Summit, while reiterating the USA's refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocol. The agreement of the eight can be summarised as the urgent recognition of the problem but without setting any clearly worked out action to take in the future.
In the belief that any reopening up of the debate on the Kyoto Protocol was inopportune, Blair deemed the question they ought to be asking was one of finding a “consensus together”, with the USA, emerging countries, like China and India. The second major subject on the agenda was - increased aid to Africa - Tony Blair is expected to return to Gleneagles. José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission announced on Wednesday the granting of annual aid of EUR 1bn for supporting the trade capacity of developing countries. He said that he hoped that this announcement and the EU agreement last month on doubling aid for development would send out a strong message at the G8 on its goals this decisive year for development. He also stated that his proposal would provide a considerable boost to aid for trade in developing countries so that they could help themselves by putting market opportunities into practice. The president of the Commission declared that Africa would be an important beneficiary.