wikileaks cables, cancún climate talks doomed to fail, says eu president

8/13/2019 WikiLeaks cables, Cancn climate talks doomed to fail, says EU president

1/3

WikiLeaks cables: Cancn climate talks

doomed to fail, says EU presidentHerman van Rompuy dismisses Copenhagen climate summit as'incredible disaster' and expects Cancn to be no better

- WikiLeaks cables reveal how US manipulated climate accord

- Cancn climate change summit: Week one in pictures

I an Traynor

guardian.co.uk, Friday 3 December 2010 21.30 GMT

larger| smaller

Herman van Rompuy, president of the European council. Photograph: Christophe Karaba/EPA

The European Union's new president, Herman Van Rompuy, has predicted "disaster" at

the latest crucial round of global climate change negotiations in Mexico and voiced

relief that he stayed away from the Copenhagen summit a year ago.

Reporting on a meeting with Van Rompuy in December last year, just after he was the

surprise choice to be the first president of the European council, a senior US diplomat

described the Belgian as "animated and frustrated".

Van Rompuy said the Copenhagen climate change talks had been "an incredibledisaster". Looking forward to the current negotiations in Cancn in Mexico, the

European leader predicted that these would be a disaster too.

Leaks cabl es: Cancn cl i mate tal ks doomed to fai l , s. . . http: / / www. guardi an. co. uk/envi ronment/2010/ dec/03/wi ki l e. . .

ur 3 2010-12-5 12: 03


2/3

The US cable paints a picture of an isolated Van Rompuy. The devoutly Catholic former

Belgian prime minister has been chairing all EU summits this year.

His first in February amounted to a Copenhagen postmortem of why the EU, proudly

branding itself the world pioneer in combating climate change, had been snubbed by the

US and China at the talks in Denmark, delivering a blow to prestige from which the EU

has yet to recover.

The US diplomat's meeting with Van Rompuy took place on 23 December last year in

the cavernous Justus Lipsius building that is the EU headquarters in Brussels. Van

Rompuy clearly cut a lonely figure a week before taking up his new job. Brussels' EU

quarter had been abandoned for the holiday. The only person around was Frans Van

Daele, the veteran Belgian diplomat and baron who is Van Rompuy's chief of staff.

"They invited me to have some coffee for about an hour. Given the holiday period the

EU building was virtually empty and both men seemed to have time to spare. We first

discussed many social pleasantries," the US envoy reports.

Van Rompuy complained bitterly that the Europeans had been "totally excluded" and

"mistreated" in Copenhagen and said he was only lucky that he had decided to stay

away.

"Had I been there my presidency would have been over before it began," the cable

quotes him as saying. The diplomat noted: "He thought it was a wise decision not to

attend the conference despite the pressure. He was not angry, in the sense that he never

seems angry, but he was as animated and as frustrated as I have seen him."

In public the EU is talking up the case for reviving climate change agreement hopes in

Cancn, but last December Van Rompuy was dismissive and pessimistic, both about the

Cancn negotiations and about the very format for the talks. "Van Rompuy said he has

'given up on Mexico'," the American reported, while his chief of staff, Van Daele,

likened the Cancn talks to the repeat of a bad film and said: 'Who wants to see that

horror movie again?' "

Van Rompuy strongly criticised the unwieldy format of the talks, with too many playersinvolved. He urged a concentration on the US, the EU and China, focusing his efforts

towards a European-American breakthrough at their summit planned for last May,

which in the end did not take place.

"Multilateral meetings will not work," Van Rompuy is quoted as saying. The diplomat

went on: "Rather than waiting for a failure at Mexico City he intends to address

Copenhagen issues with the United States at Madrid; he envisioned engaging China

thereafter. In his mind talks with the US would have to focus on Madrid and not Mexico

City."

Van Rompuy's "disaster" in Copenhagen was compounded by a further setback a few

weeks later when Barack Obama brushed aside Spanish pleadings for a visit to Madrid


ur 3 2010-12-5 12: 03


3/3

guardian.co.uk Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

for a summit with the EU.

The Spanish took over the rotating six-month presidency of the EU at the start of the

year. On 1 February William Kennard, Obama's new ambassador to the EU, met the

Spanish ambassador.

Among other things "they discussed the prospects for a US-EU summit in Madrid in

May", a subsequent cable says.

"The EU thinks it would be a mistake for the US to opt out of the summit," the cable

reports.

But the US ambassador said that while the White House "understands the important

symbolism of the summit" Obama was more focused on results.

The Spanish said climate change was one reason for holding the summit but they would

be happy if it was cancelled, as long as it was replaced by a bilateral Obama trip toSpain.

The cable notes drily that the two ambassadors parted with the American promising to

keep the Spaniards posted. He "placed a phone call later that evening and eventually

informed [the Spanish ambassador] of the White House decision on the morning of 2

February".

At the same time US officials in Madrid were talking to the Spanish prime minister, Jos

Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, and the then foreign minister, Miguel Moratinos.

"Spanish disappointment is profound," reported ambassador Alan Solomont.

"The summit with the US the first visit of a US president in eight years was to be the

climax of Spain's [EU] presidency. The Spanish do not feel betrayed but they are deeply

disappointed Zapatero has taken a serious political blow."


ur 3 2010 12 5 12: 03

wikileaks cables, cancún climate talks doomed to fail, says eu president

Documents