EU agrees greenhouse gas deal

European Union leaders yesterday approved radical and stringent cuts in greenhouse gases, but were split about how the measures would be paid for and who would be asked to curtail their emissions the most.

The EU agreed to make reduce emissions by a fifth by 2020, but Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi threatened to veto the move, complaining that the effects of the financial crisis had been such that the Italian economy would not be able to enact the cuts.

"Our companies are in no state to take on costs like those we thought about last year," Berlusconi complained. He was joined by leaders of eight eastern European countries, who warned that the EU must balance its environmental demands with "the[ir] need for sustainable economic growth".

French president and holder of the rotating EU presidency Nicolas Sarkozy, acknowledged these concerns but hailed the agreement and said that the EU would work towards a package that financed these measures by the end of the year.

"The financial crisis should not lower our ambitions," Sarkozy said. "No one said that they wanted to renounce the objectives." He urged all the EU nations to "bear their historic responsibility as leaders of Europe to face up to the climate challenge," warning that "We can't delay, we cannot postpone" action on climate change.