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EU seals climate, recession deals

Leaders agree to 200b euro agreements

AFP, Brussels
EU leaders sealed an agreement yesterday for a 200 billion euro plan designed to dig Europe out of recession and a package to combat global warming on the final day of a crunch summit in Brussels.
After persuading Ireland to submit a stalled EU reform treaty to a second referendum next year, the 27 leaders agreed to club together to fund an economic stimulus package and make major cuts in greenhouse gas emmissions.
"We are starting to change the way we do things in Europe --talking less and doing more," French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who chaired the summit, told a press conference.
Although climate change deal was only sealed after protracted negotiations, leaders said there had been an overwhelming consensus on the need for a joint assault on the economic slowdown.
Everybody wason thesauu line about die need lui a recovery plan," said Sarkozy. 'Exceptional situations need exceptional measures."
An eve of summit interview by German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck, who ridiculed the idea of "tossing around billions' to fend off recession, had indicated that the rescue package would prove a major bone of contention.
But British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, whose "breathtaking" 20-billion-pound (30 billion dollars) stimulus package was
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singled out by Steinbrueck, said the agreement was a riposte to those "who say you (should) do nothing".
"What Europe has proved unanimously today is that it is ready to act in a united way to deal with the global downturn," Brown told reporters,
"We will continue to reject the do-nothing approach and we will not stand by and let the recession take its course."
Under the stimulus plan, member countries would pump on average the equivalent of 1.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) into their economies in order to temper the impact of a global recession.
Ahead of the summit, Germany had expressed reservations about ploughing so much public money into the economy and resisted pressure to contribute more than what it judged necessary to get the German economy going again.
Sarkozy also said that there had been unanimous agreement on the need for an "historic" climate package that he said should inspire theh rest of the world.
"It is quite historic what has happened here," he said.
"No continent has given itself such binding rules that we have adopted with unanimity."
The EU's climate-energy package, the "20-20-20" deal, seeks to decrease greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020, make 20 percent energy savings and bring renewable energy sources up to 20 percent of total energy use.
Sarkozy denied the targets had not been watered down during the negotiations amid calls by several states for amendments to the initial package at a time of recession.
"The objectives remain the same," said Sarkozy. "No way can the (economic) crisis be used as an excuse not to move on the environment."
European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said the agreement showed that the 27-nation bloc was serious about tackling global warming.
"These are the most ambitious proposals anywhere in the world," hesaid.
"Europe has today passed its credibility test. We mean business when we talk about climate."
Leaders also confirmed they had adopted a deal to pave the way for Ireland to stage a second referendum on a stalled package of key reforms, the Lisbon Treaty which was rejected in June.
Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen said he was prepared to call a new referendum as long as promised guarantees arc delivered.
"I have said that I would be prepared to return to the public with a new package and seek their approval of it," Cowen told reporters.
"Today we have the clear evidence the European Union is ready to respond" to the concerns displayed by the Irish people in the June plebiscite, he added.
Under the deal, Ireland would try to hold a new referendum by November 2009 in exchange for guarantees on key issues including an assurance that it does not lose its EU commissioner.