Poland threatened on Wednesday to veto a December deadline for adopting ambitious European Union legislation to fight climate change unless changes are made to shield the coal-based Polish economy from the impact. Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told Reuters: “It is a difficult poker game in which Poland is ready to present its veto if there are attempts to force us into agreement on the climate package next month. We cannot agree to that.” UPDATE: Eight Eastern European nations want the EU to ease targets for greenhouse-gas cuts because of the global economic crisis. The leaders of Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia and the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia say they want the EU to rethink a plan to cut emissions by 20 percent by 2020. They argue that Eastern European economies have greatly cut pollution already and Europe faces “serious economic and financial uncertainties.”
