Leaders dispute EU climate progress

The prime minister has hailed progress on climate change following the EU council meeting.

Gordon Brown, who attended the heads of government meeting last week, said member states had agreed a post-2012 agreement to reduce carbon emissions and make Europe "lead the world in a low carbon economy".

The council had agreed an "ambitious schedule" for adopting measures designed to cut emissions by 20 per cent by 2020, he told the Commons.

And he said there had been progress on his own proposals for reducing VAT on items like low-energy light bulbs and fridges.

The council had asked the European Commission to bring forward legislative proposals on VAT rates this summer, he went on.

It will "work with member states to examine areas where economic instruments including VAT rates can play a role in increasing the use of energy-saving materials, from - as the UK has proposed - insulation and household materials, to energy efficient electrical goods," Brown said.

The completion of the European Reform Treaty would, he said, let the EU move beyond institutional issues to "address the challenges that matter most to the citizens of Europe".

"Only a common European approach, a Europe with Britain not at the margins but at the centre, leading the world, can ensure a global low carbon economy, founded on our proposal of a global carbon market," the prime minister told MPs.

Response

Conservative leader David Cameron, responding to the statement, said the treaty was "irrelevant" to the emissions trading scheme.

"You do not need a new constitution or treaty to deal with climate change at the EU level," he said.

While all would welcome Brown's plans for flexible VAT to encourage green behaviour, he said, he quoted an unnamed EU diplomat who called the wording of the agreement "a polite way of saying no and a way of saving face".

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said the aim was "laudable", but asked why the prime minister raised it in a "bizarre fashion" by springing it on his EU colleagues at the last minute.

"My worry is that the manner in which the proposal was spun in the press was as much to do with obscuring the government's woeful record on the environment compared to other European countries," he said.

He went on: "Does the prime minister not accept that he can make all the noise he wants about his VAT proposals but our green credentials within the European Union will never be strong unless real action is taken across a much broader range of issues?"