EU president says to discuss climate negotiations at special summit
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European Union (EU) President Herman Van Rompuy said on Thursday that EU leaders would discuss how to move the global climate negotiations forward at a special summit in February.
"I have decided to add a reflection on 'post-Copenhagen' to the agenda of the informal European Council of February," Van Rompuy said at a Christian Social Union party conference in Wildbad Kreuth, Germany, according to a speech text released in Brussels.
European Council is the official name for the summit of EU leaders. Van Rompuy, the EU's first full-time president, had called for a special EU summit to discuss economic issues on his first working day earlier this week.
A UN climate change conference was held in Copenhagen, Denmark last month. The two-week-long negotiations ended with the issuance of the Copenhagen Accord, which was accepted by a large majority of countries, but the conference failed to produce a legally- binding deal, making the EU feel disappointed.
Van Rompuy said the Copenhagen conference is a further step in a long process, suggesting the EU should continue to push for a deal at the next conference in Mexico in November.
"It is only by bringing all the member-states together in a common strategy that we may hope to translate the EU's ambitious climate goals in global negotiating power," he said.
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