Czech Republic, France and Sweden make climate change priority of successive EU presidencies

The Czech Republic, alongside France and Sweden, pledged on Tuesday to make real progress on combating global warming during its EU presidency, paving the way for a worldwide deal to fight climate change. The three countries, which will steer EU policy each for a six-month stint starting with France’s tenure in July, face the challenge of sealing an agreement on the Commission’s climate-energy package. They also aim to launch talks with a new US administration over global warming and prepare for the Copenhagen UN summit in December 2009, which should hammer out a successor to the Kyoto climate change agreement. Czech deputy prime minister Martin Bursík underlined Prague’s priority of sounding out a new US administration for the EU-US summit in spring next year.