The EU Summit which took place on 11-12 December between national leaders, concluded with an agreement that is less stringent than the original Commission and Parliament proposals, but which aims to reach the overall target of a 20% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. EU leaders hailed the agreement as a further indication of Europe’s commitment to play a central role in the fight against climate change, with French President Nicolas Sarkozy calling the accord an ‘historic’ moment. Environmental groups meanwhile, were far more critical of the deal raising fears that the agreed package would not be sufficient to successfully tackle the threat of climate change.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel believes the outcome shows that ‘we merit our leadership role’ and that it would send an ‘important signal’ to Poznan, where UN negotiations were concurrently taking place on a global climate change deal, which is expected in Copenhagen a year from now. This enthusiasm was reiterated by UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown who argued that the ‘principles that underly Europe's leadership on the climate will be upheld’.