European liberal Democrats from all over Europe gathered for the biannual ELDR meeting reached a common position on the bloc's ambitious climate change and energy 'package' of legislation on the eve of a two-day EU summit.

"The main commitment in the climate and energy package must be maintained", reiterated Annemie Neyts, ELDR party president, opening the summit. "We do not want to scale down the targets", she added.

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CEN and CENELEC, the European Standardization Organizations, have combined efforts to develop a common approach to ICT standards issues.
Brussels (11 December 2008) – CEN, The European Committee for Standardization, and CENELEC, The European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization, will be collaborating on their future standards work in the domain of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).

On 9 December, the EU Council and the European Parliament reached a compromise on theproposal for a directive on the promotion of energy produced from renewable sources.

Pekka PESONEN, Secretary General of Copa and Cogeca, declared, “The compromise on theproposal for a directive on the promotion of energy produced from renewable sources is a clearsuccess of the integrated climate and energy policy. I would like to thank the negotiators from allthree institutions for their work.”

Developing countries have made great strides in the last year in meeting the climate challenge but the EU and US need to inject new momentum after a disappointing start to the UN Climate Change Conference in Poznan, said GUE/NGL Members of the European Parliament Bairbre de Brún (Ireland) and Roberto Musacchio (Italy).

Distribution: immediate - December 11, 2008, 12:09 pm

EU legislation on carbon capture and storage (CCS), a key element in the climate change and energy package being promoted by the French Presidency, will not be approved this year unless the European Council, meeting today in Brussels, agrees funding arrangements for CCS demonstration projects.