Brussels - The European Union's leaders struck a blow for their heavy industries by pushing through concessions on the bloc's flagship laws on climate change.

After two days of at times acrimonious talks in Brussels, the 27- member union's highest politicians insisted that the EU's central body propose ways to protect polluting industries from unfair competition immediately - rather than waiting for a global deal.

"If there is no international deal, we should already have a (law) ready on how to deal with energy-intensive industries, rather than only starting to think about it if nobody else joins us," Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, who spearheaded the move, said.

Under plans set out on January 23 by the EU's executive body, the European Commission, most EU industries will as from 2013 have to buy permits to emit carbon dioxide (CO2, the gas most linked with global warming) at auction, rather than receiving them for free.

Industry lobbyists had protested that this would make it impossible for them to compete with firms in countries with less stringent environmental rules.

The commission responded by promising to study the problem with an eye to proposing solutions by 2011, in the belief that to do so earlier would damage the EU's position in global talks on climate change, which are set to culminate in Copenhagen in December 2009.

"Our goal is to have an international agreement," Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso stressed.

But on Friday a strong group of states, led by Germany and France, re-wrote the conclusions of the regular meeting of EU leaders to insist that the issue be "analysed and addressed urgently in the new (law), so that if international negotiations fail, appropriate measures can be taken."

The decision from the EU's highest decision-making body effectively forces Barroso's hand, since the EU is committed to bringing the new law into force by early 2009.

 1 2 Next >