Eastern European states demand funds for new EU climate push

Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic set out demands on Thursday that could block agreement on the EU’s new push for climate neutrality by 2050, saying the poor should not have to bear the cost.

At a summit in Brussels, the majority of 27 EU leaders are expected to offer financial incentives to the eastern member states to win their support for the goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by mid-century, Reuters reports.

“We cannot allow Brussels bureaucrats to have poor people and poor countries to pay the costs of the fight against climate change,” Hungarian PM Viktor Orban said ahead of the meeting. “We must receive clear financial guarantees and we will negotiate the terms of that.”

The summit is the first since Germany’s Ursula von der Leyen took office as the new head of the EU’s executive commission.