The summit "of challenges and opportunities" ends to the "full satisfaction" of the Slovenian prime minister, Janez Jansa, current president of the European Council. "We addressed some important issues, such as climate change, energy, economic stability, the Lisbon Strategy. We managed to find agreement on the items on the agenda". Jansa takes stock of the meeting held in Brussels yesterday and today and explains: "As to the environment and energy, we have endorsed the package of proposals submitted by the EU Commission in January. By June", the end of the Slovenian term, "we’ll reach factual agreement". The document with the Conclusions of the summit (20 pages) contains a long chapter about these subjects. "This is about outlining a specific method for reducing carbon emissions without slowing down the development of our businesses. This strategy will involve a cost, but the price of inaction would be much higher". "As EU, we pin our hopes on the Copenhagen Conference of 2009 which shall outline a strategy for the after-Kyoto. In the meantime we will be outlining the EU strategy so as to keep the Union at the helm of the processes for fighting climate change". (continued)
