EU summit kicks off, focusing on economy and climate change
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The EU spring summit kicked off here on Thursday with the bloc's 2020 economic strategy and climate change high on the agenda.
The two-day summit is the first formal one hosted by the permanent President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, since he took office at the beginning of this year. In his invitation letter, Van Rompuy said that the European Council would first discuss the new European strategy for jobs and growth, the so-called "Europe 2020" strategy.
He said the leaders must "reach agreement on its main elements, including governance as well as the nature and scope of the EU headline targets, which will guide the implementation of the strategy. "This discussion should allow us to formally adopt the strategy in June," he added.
The European Commission recently presented the Europe 2020 strategy, calling for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth for the EU by 2020. The new plan is supposed to replace the Lisbon Strategy, a 10-year blueprint adopted in 2000.
Despite the consensus that the bloc is in urgent need of a new development plan, the headline targets and the enforcement measures proposed by the Commission have received mixed reactions.
On Friday, EU leaders will talk about the follow-up to the Copenhagen Conference on climate change, looking at how a new dynamic can be brought to the negotiation process and making preparations for the upcoming meetings in Bonn and Cancun.
"Whilst keeping our objective of a legally binding agreement, we should agree on a more step-by-step approach, in order to help get the negotiation process back on track," said Van Rompuy.
The summit will also tackle common economic governance and the coordination of policies to help put an end to the differences in competitiveness between various countries of the EU.
The ongoing Greek debt crisis is another focus during the summit. Spain and France has jointly proposed a pre-summit meeting of leaders of the 16-member eurozone, in a bid to provide financial aid to Greece.
As France and Germany are deeply divided on the issue, the proposal has been discarded. However, diplomats said earlier Thursday that a special meeting is still possible after the EU leaders finished their first day of talks.
