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EU reform treaty summit
 Source: MediaScrape
The European Union, reeling from Ireland's "No" vote to its reform treaty, acknowledged on Friday (June 20) that another member state, the Czech Republic, has a problem with ratifying the text for the moment. "The European Council noted that the Czech Republic cannot complete the ratification process until the constitutional court delivers its positive opinion on the accordance of the Lisbon Treaty with the Czech constitutional order," the leaders said in a footnote to their final statement at a two-day summit. France is taking over the rotating presidency and said it would make it one of its priority to bring the family of all 27 member states together. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he would visit Dublin next month and wants to make sure that Ireland is not the first of several problems otherwise it would be "unmanageable". He said the EU had decided ratification would go ahead. "The treaty of Lisbon exists. It was signed by all 27 leaders of the member states. Today 19 countries have approved it, one has rejected it. We have taken the decision that the process of ratification will continue in all member states, except of course with what I said on Ireland," he said. He added that re-negotiation of the treaty as proposed by the Irish no vote campaigners was not an option. "We need a solution with all 27, which is what I said yesterday that the role of the French presidency will be to bring the complete European family, and complete is complete. The second agreement is that any re-negotiation of the treaty is out of the question," said Sarkozy. Sarkozy said he would also bring the Czech Republic into the presidency to play a joint role to find a solution, along with Sweden, third in line for the presidency. "We have decided that whatever our disagreements we will get together to ensure an 18 month presidency in some ways since it will be a common presidency," Sarkozy said. All 27 member states must ratify the Lisbon Treaty for it to take effect. The Czechs, whose Eurosceptical centre-right Civic Democrats are concerned about national sovereignty, had sought to prevent any call for continued ratification after the June 12 Irish referendum defeat. Czech President Vaclav Klaus declared the treaty "dead" after the Irish vote and the Senate has referred the text to the constitutional court for a ruling not expected before October. Sarkozy said the presidency and the European Commission will work together to find ways of alleviating the pressure of rising fuel costs by studying possible short-term tax measures. But leaders of the world's biggest trade bloc will underline the need to avoid distortionary tax and policy steps that prevent business and consumers adapting to higher energy prices. It did not list the measures to be considered, but France has proposed capping value-added tax on petrol, Italy plans a windfall tax on oil company profits and Austria wants an EU tax on commodity speculation. The European Council has formally asked of the French Presidency to lead, in collaboration with the commission, a study on the feasibility of fiscal and other measures proposed by member states to limit the increase in fuel prices. The council has therefore asked the French presidency, together with the commission to present a report before the October council on this measure," Sarkozy said. Germany, Sweden, Denmark and the EU's energy commissioner criticised French President Nicolas Sarkozy's proposal to cap value-added tax on petrol and use the proceeds of higher oil tax revenues to help sectors worst hit by high energy prices. One summit participant said asking the Commission to study such measures was a face-saver for Sarkozy but would lead nowhere. Austria's Foreign Minister Ursula Plasnik said each individual member state will be able to take coordinated measures but that the EU needed to assess broader measures which will take longer to agree on. "We have to respect the competences to find contributions to act against current commodities price increase and has to be at national level primarily there is consensus that pointing lower income and particularly afflicted parts of population are being taken at national level, austria taken number of steps to increase support for those particularly affected for example by high oil prices when commuting and have to take the care but at european level must look at what everyone is doing, the best practices and possibilities to act, on one hand and also give specific mandates to commission and other bodies to look closely and analyse closely proposals on the table now, we looking at speculation realm now because its part of price increases in number of areas and we have to be precise and have to be targeted it in our analysis," she said. Britain's Gordon Brown said the problem was global and that part of the answer, for the long term, lay in investing away from fossil fuel "We recognised that governments can only tackle these problems by working together. Global problems require global solutions so we agreed to do more to balance energy supply and demand now and in the longer term. We need to make a reality of our commitment to energy efficiency, we need to reduce our dependency on oil, this is strongly in Britain's interest, it is in Europe's interest, it will help us cut energy and fuel bills, tackle climate change and increase energy security," Brown said. He said he will propose at the Saudi meeting of oil producers this weekend that revenues be redistributed to the most needy. "So we will propose at Jedda that oil producers should be recycling oil revenues into the United Kingdom, the European Union and other countries, three trillion in revenues transferred from oil consumers to oil producers and there should now be credible commitments from oil producers to invest more widely in alternatives to oil, in nuclear, in renewables, in wind, in wave and turbine power and solar power so we can create more balanced energy market with the prospect of the long term price of oil falling as a result," Brown said. A Commission document showed that by 2020 EU oil imports could fall to less than 570 million tonnes a year, from 610 million now, as new energy-saving policy kicks in and consumers react to oil prices above $100 a barrel.
Rating: (0 ratings) Views: 8 Added: Jun 20, 2008
Category: News
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