EU summit focuses on financial crisis, climate change

www.chinaview.cn 2008-10-17 04:37:23  

    BRUSSELS, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) --

Heads of state and government from 27 European Union countries concluded here on Thursday their two-day summit after demonstrating "unanimous" support to a concerted action plan adopted by their eurozone members to fight the current financial turmoil.

    In joint conclusions out of the summit, which focused on the financial crisis, EU leaders said they welcome the concerted action plan of the euro area countries.

    "On the financial crisis, I can confirm with you all the information that we have given you. That was a subject of unanimity," French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country holds the EU rotating presidency, told reporters after a two-day summit with his EU counterparts.

    Leaders from the 15 EU countries that use the euro hammered out an action plan in a joint response to the unfolding financial crisis at their first ever summit in Paris Sunday.

    Among those agreed measures, eurozone governments would, acting on national basis, buy into banks to boost their finances and temporarily guarantee bank refinancing to ease the credit crunch, which was modeled after the British bailout package.

    The summit called for a revamp of the global financial system to prevent the recurrence of the current financial crisis, pushing for a global summit by the end of this year, said French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is also current EU President.

    He said he would invite U.S. President George W. Bush to the summit this weekend and would also invite leaders of the emerging economies, such as China and India, to take part in the refounding the world financial system.

    "We all agree in Europe that we are going to need to re-found the international financial system," Sarkozy told reporters.

    No financial institutions should be exempted from supervision, he said.

    On relations with Russia and EU eastern neighbors, the summit welcomed the withdrawal of Russian troops from Georgia under an EU-brokered ceasefire agreement with Georgia.

    But it failed to set a timetable to resume talks on a new cooperation and partnership deal, but only vaguely said in the conclusion: "It (European Council) will be taken into account in the further negotiations for a new Partnership Agreement with Russia".

    The summit asked the commission and the council to continue a full in-depth evaluation of EU-Russia relations with a view to the forthcoming summit in Nov. 14 in Nice, France.

    An earlier version of the conclusion had said that talks would restart in November, but France, the current EU presidency, did not make it to convince Britain, Poland, Sweden and Baltic states to agree with it.

    These countries have opposed to any quick move towards warming up ties with Russia, insisted that the EU should make sure Russia is fully observing an EU-mediated ceasefire agreement before resuming negotiations.

    Russia completed its pullout on Oct. 8 of troops stationed in the "buffer zones" adjacent to Abkhazia and South Ossetia, two breakaway regions of Georgia.

    The EU suspended the talks after a Georgia-Russia conflict in the summer.

    On ties with other eastern neighbors, the conclusion said that EU "is resolved, in particular through its neighborhood policy, to supporting its eastern neighbors in their efforts to achieve economic modernization and democratization."

    The summit called for relations between the EU and the Republic of Moldova and Georgia to be strengthened, asking the European Council to conduct an initial examination of the proposals for a future "Eastern Partnership" of the EU.

    On energy security, the leaders agreed to step up efforts to ensure security of energy supply for the bloc, which is a priority for the 27-member bloc.

    The EU is to pursue with determination the diversification of energy sources, and develop crisis mechanisms to deal with temporary disruptions to supplies, said a conclusion document after the meeting.

    It will expedite the implementation of the European Energy Efficiency Action Plan and the Strategic Energy Technology Plan, and finalize the legislative package on the internal market in electricity and gas before the June 2009 elections of the European Parliament.

    The EU will strengthen critical infrastructure, particularly trans-European energy transport networks and liquefied natural gasterminals.

    Particular attention will be paid to interconnections and to the connection of the most isolated European countries, to the interface of European networks with supply infrastructure, and to the need to diversify both sources and routes.

    The EU summit expressed support to the European Commission's initiative of establishing a plan of action to speed up interconnections in the Baltic region. A schedule of its work will be drawn up before the end of this year.

    It will also further develop its energy relations with producer and transit countries.

    For this purpose, a meeting of the Caspian Sea countries and transit countries will be organized by the EU's Czech presidency next spring.

    On the stalled Lisbon Treaty, the summit listened analysis by Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen on the rejection of the treaty Lisbon by his country's voters in June, the EU leaders decided to try to find out a solution at December's summit.

    On climate change, Sarkozy said that the EU would reach an agreement on its climate-energy package before the end of the year.

    "We will find a compromise for a big agreement" on the EU's package of energy and climate.

    Several EU states showed reluctance to implement the package, which was proposed in January by the European Commission.

    Under the package, by the year 2020, the EU must reduce by 20 percent greenhouse emissions, increase the rate of renewables' consumption to 20 percent and lower by 20 percent of traditional energy.

    The summit adopted the European Pact Immigration and Asylum.