Berlin - Poland and Germany remained at odds Thursday over climate targets, despite talks between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and visiting Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in Berlin. Merkel said she hoped the differences would be settled at an EU summit in Brussels October 15-16.
Warsaw has opposed emissions-reduction targets proposed by the European Commission as too tough, and has called for Poland to receive a significantly larger allowance in the later phases of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme.
The Poles say their share does not recognize progress they have already made by closing dirty, communist-era industrial polluters.
Tusk was in Madrid and Paris to press Poland's cause before his arrival in Berlin. He has hinted Warsaw might veto the anti-global-warming policy if other EU nations remain adamant.
Merkel and Tusk both welcomed a European Court of Human Rights ruling Thursday that rejected compensation claims by ethnic Germans who lost land during the Second World War in areas that are now part of Poland.
"It's a good outcome for Germany and Poland," Tusk said. The ruling put a "definitive end" to the claims.
Merkel said the ruling confirmed Germany's position that there were no valid claims and "important signal" that there would be no uncertainties in the future.
