Yesterday EU leaders made it very clear that the agreement about the union climate package still is to be negotiated and signed this year during the French EU presidency. It is a positive and important signal for the possibilities of a global agreement next year in Copenhagen.

“The objectives remain unchanged, the calendar remains the same,” French President Nicolas Sarkozy told a news conference at the end of the two-day summit. “The deadline on climate change is so important that we cannot use the financial and economic crisis as a pretext for dropping it,” he said.

Although all 27 leaders in the end agreed to stick to the objectives, Sarkozy acknowledged that he faced a tough task ahead in getting a unanimous deal on how to share out the burden of the switch to cleaner energy by the December deadline.

In a compromise on climate change, the EU-leader agreed to stick to the December deadline but promised that he will work hard to ensure a fair sharing of the burden to avoid penalizing the former Communist nations who depend largely on carbon-heavy coal for their power.

The EU plan would cost governments and business billions of euros (dollars) to implement new cleaner technologies, renewable energy sources, and reduce emissions from cars and factories. Italian President Silvio Berlusconi said that it would put Europe at a disadvantage to competitors in China and the United States. Supporters of the plan countered that taking a world lead in switching to green energy would bring economic advantages to Europe in the long run and thereby strengthen the European position in the Global markets.

The seven eastern European countries that were against the negotiating about the climate package have now been written into the French EU presidency conclusions of the summit that all nations must approve the agreement before it can be adopted at the next EU summit in December.

EU commission president Jose Manuel Barroso, acknowledges after the summit that EU leaders had some intense negotiations, and there is still a long way to a complete the agreement in December.

“Let’s be honest: We are far from finished with the agreement, and we have a lot of work to do before December”, Barroso said.

Sarkozy’s determination and support from Angela Merkel and Gordon Brown strengthens the Danish Governments ambitions about making the EU leaders akknowledge and sign the climate and energy package, which is absolutely necessary in order to reach a global climate agreement in Copenhagen in December 2009 .