* EU leaders call for deal on climate change funding
* Leaders hope to agree deal on Lisbon reform treaty
* Nine countries unhappy with funding proposal
By Ilona Wissenbach and Jan Lopatka
BRUSSELS, Oct 29 (Reuters) - European Union leaders urged
member states to agree on funding for a global climate change
deal at a summit on Thursday but faced a rift between countries
from eastern and western Europe.
The row over funding to help developing countries fight the
effects of global warming is one of the main issues at a two-day
summit that will also try to remove obstacles to the Lisbon
reform treaty that would create an EU president.
Failure to break the deadlock could leave the 27-country
bloc looking impotent and undermine efforts to strengthen its
global influence to match the rise of emerging powers such as
China following the economic crisis. []
"Now is the time to formulate the EU climate mandate,"
Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, whose country holds
the EU presidency until the end of this year, told a news
conference before the summit.
He urged member states to show leadership on climate change
before world leaders meet in Copenhagen in December to agree a
successor to the Kyoto Protocol on battling climate change which
expires in 2012.
"I hope the European leaders will show commitment now. They
have shown this in the past," said Jose Manuel Barroso, the
president of the European Commission, the EU executive.
But the divisions over financing are deep and a battle is
looming between nine of the EU's poorer member states in eastern
Europe and the rest of the bloc.
The nine countries oppose agreement on how much funding to
give developing countries until the EU has agreed on internal
burden sharing -- the amount each EU state will provide.
Hungary made clear it was not satisfied with a Swedish
proposal on ending the dispute.
"The burden-sharing proposal is not acceptable in its
current form," Hungarian Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai said.
MERKEL'S CONCERN
Some member states are looking to German Chancellor Angela
Merkel for progress on the funding because Berlin has resisted
calls to set a precise sum for funding, saying the EU should
wait for others to show their hand.
"I want Copenhagen to be a success. The EU has to make clear
its ideas. But it is crucial that the United States and China
also make clear what they are willing to contribute," she said
after arriving in Brussels for the summit.
Merkel said, however, she was hopeful about the chances of
agreement on the other main issue at the summit -- resolving a
dispute with Czech President Vaclav Klaus that has delayed
ratification of the Lisbon reform treaty. []
All member states except the Czech Republic have ratified
the treaty, intended to ease Union decision-making, create an EU
president and give the high representative for foreign policy
enhanced powers.
Klaus has said he will sign the treaty only if he secures an
opt-out from a human rights charter attached to the treaty to
shield the Czech Republic from property claims by ethnic Germans
who were expelled after World War Two.
The EU leaders hope to agree on a political declaration that
is acceptable to Klaus, probably promising to add the Czech
Republic to a list of countries that have an opt-out. So far
only Britain and Poland have opt-outs.
"We are progressing here slowly. Nevertheless I am
optimistic," Merkel said.
The delay over the treaty has held up decisions on who will
become EU president. Reinfeldt said no names would be discussed
at the summit but diplomats have said there could be discussion
of how leaders see the roles.
Agreement to choose a leader with name recognition outside
the EU would favour a candidate such as former British Prime
Minister Tony Blair. Agreement on a more bureaucratic president
who would lead by consensus could rule him out of the job.
[]
(Writing by Timothy Heritage, additional reporting by Pete
Harrison, David Brunnstrom and Marcin Grajewski; Editing by
Janet Lawrence)
