Agreement in view

The left-liberal daily La Repubblica comments on Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's new willingness to compromise. His threats to veto the package had jeopardised the climate protection negotiations. "The fear of cutting a poor figure and of attacks from the Left are behind Berlusconi's sudden U-turn. ... Italy will be satisfied; it demands laxer measures to avoid the threat of production being shifted to countries with few or no climate regulations. The goal of the EU is to put together a respectable climate package in readiness for the international negotiations on climate protection in 2009, when all states will have to agree on a follow-up to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. The hope is that the EU together with [Barack] Obama's US and his new climate plan can convince the rest of the world to endorse climate protection."

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