* EU leaders agree on climate change funding
* Finance issue important for global deal in Copenhagen
* Special summit likely to choose president
(Adds quotes, details)
By Marcin Grajewski and Pete Harrison
BRUSSELS, Oct 30 (Reuters) - The European Union agreed a
deal on Friday to help developing nations combat climate change
and urged other world powers to follow suit to win the fight
against global warming.
EU leaders bridged a rift between rich and less prosperous
member states after two days of summit talks, enabling them to
agree a joint position for talks in Copenhagen in December on a
new global pact against climate change. []
The agreement was a relief for the EU leaders who also made
progress towards ratification of a treaty to increase the bloc's
global influence but acknowledged an extra summit may be needed
to decide who will be their first president.
They are looking for a leader who will help reinforce the
27-country bloc's standing on the world stage but have made
clear it will not be former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
"We can now look the rest of the world in the eyes and say
we have done our job, we are ready for Copenhagen," said Jose
Manuel Barroso, the president of the EU executive, the European
Commission. []
"We can take this message to Washington, to New Delhi, to
Beijing and elsewhere... We are now at a very critical moment.
There are many people who believe that the Copenhagen summit is
at risk. I think, we think, that we can make it a success."
CLIMATE DEAL AT RISK
The worst financial crisis since the 1930s has distracted
attention from global warming and the United Nations and many
countries say a legally binding treaty is impossible at the
Copenhagen meeting from Dec. 7-18.
Funding is central to the chances of success in Copenhagen
because developing countries say they will not sign up to
tackling climate change without enough funds from rich nations.
Barroso and other EU leaders gave few details of how a deal
was reached to ease the concerns of eastern European states over
how much money they will asked to provide to help developing
nations tackle the effects of global warming.
An EU statement said the member states had agreed developing
nations would need about 100 billion euros ($148 billion) each
year by 2020 to tackle climate change.
Of that sum, about 22-50 billion euros would have to come
from public funds, as opposed to industry -- and the EU would
put up about one quarter of that sum.
"We have reached a compromise that is good for climate and
addresses the concerns of poorer EU countries," Polish Prime
Minister Donald Tusk said. "There are no losers. Everyone gave
ground a bit, but the deal is good for everybody."
Tusk was among leaders criticised in a letter by South
African cleric Desmond Tutu, who urged world leaders to do more
to make a deal possible in Copenhagen.
"World leaders are backtracking, mumbling about domestic
difficulties and lack of time whilst the European Union,
previously progressive champions for action on climate change,
is paralysed by the unseemly bickering amongst its member states
over who will pay the bill," he wrote. []
BLAIR'S HOPES SLIDE
The leaders reached an agreement on Thursday that opened the
way to ratification of the Lisbon treaty, which would ease EU
decision-making, create an EU president and increase the powers
of its foreign policy chief. []
Under the deal, the leaders accepted Czech President Vaclav
Klaus's demands for an opt-out from a rights charter attached to
the treaty, to shield the Czech Republic from property claims by
ethnic Germans expelled after World War Two.
"I have accepted the decision of the Brussels European
summit," Klaus said. "I am not going to raise any further
conditions for the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty".
Ratification by the Czech Republic, the only EU state that
has not ratified, now depends on its constitutional court
rejecting a legal challenge in a ruling expected on Tuesday.
Blair's hopes of becoming EU president faded when his
candidacy failed to secure the blessing of European socialists,
his Labour Party's allies. Several EU leaders said a special
summit would probably be held next month to discuss the job.
The post is now more likely to go to a centre-right leader,
especially as centre-right parties dominate the European
Parliament and form a majority among EU leaders.
No front-runner has emerged, but possible contenders include
Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, former Finnish prime
minister Paavo Lipponen and Luxembourg Prime Minister
Jean-Claude Juncker. []
(Writing by Timothy Heritage; Editing by Dominic Evans)
