Barroso hopes for EU summit deal on climate funds 

EU finance ministers were this week unable to reach agreement on how much funding should be provided for poor countries as part of a deal to tackle climate change which world leaders hope to clinch in Copenhagen in December (EurActiv 21/10/09).

It is now up to EU heads of government to try to break the impasse at an 29-30 October summit.

"I hope we will be able to finalise this when we meet in the European Council next week in Brussels, in a firm proposal for Copenhagen," European Commission President José Manuel Barroso told a development aid conference in Stockholm.

Some EU diplomats are much less optimistic, saying EU leaders have huge obstacles to overcome.

Finance for developing countries is proving a sticking point in the run-up to the climate talks in December on finding a replacement to the Kyoto Protocol, the United Nations' main tool against climate change. It expires in 2012.

The European Commission suggested last month the 27-country bloc should provide up to 15 billion euros a year by 2020.

To prove they are sincere in their efforts, rich nations should also provide five to seven billion euros a year of "fast-track funding" in the three years before the Copenhagen deal takes effect, the Commission said.

But nine Eastern EU countries, which are among the bloc's poorer member states, want those early funds for developing nations allocated on a voluntary basis, saying they do not want to pay a disproportionately high amount.

(EurActiv with Reuters.)