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.

Graham Watson, leaders of the Alliance of Liberals and democrats for Europe in the EP, attending the press conference stated: "If member states cannot agree on effective emissions trading targets, they must agree on a method for carbon capture and storage." Confident in the EU summit he said: "I believe we can reach agreement at this summit". Watson also strengthened the support of the group for the Commission's economic stimulus package and called on member states to tread with care when bending rules they have themselves set out with good reason.

On the Lisbon Treaty issues, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Danish Prime Minister said: "We must do our upmost to facilitate the ratification of the Treaty before the end of the present Commission. "If Ireland can secure ratification of the Treaty, I am prepared to accept one commissioner per country."

In order to the new rising anti European movements, Watson intervened: "The elections will be challenging, but they are challenges we can meet. The main aim is to stop the spread of anti-European messages and we must work to counter this.

" The British leaders of the LibDems, Nick Clegg also attended the Liberal summit. "We are strongly pro Europe and we stick with the topics of the EU summit. The British LibDems are for strong unite Europe and collective action" he said. Commenting the financial crisis the British leader highlighted that it is "a test for the EU to provide stability and security at a time of recession and rising unemployment."