POZNAN, Poland (Reuters) - The European Union's Environment Commissioner, Stavros Dimas, said on Wednesday he was confident the bloc will resolve disputes and agree an EU climate package at its summit later this week.
"We are going to have an agreement," Dimas told a news conference at the U.N.-led global climate negotiations in Poznan, western Poland.
"I can assure you that the reductions targets, 20 percent by 2020 and the other targets that we have set in renewables, will be intact," he said.
The 27-nation bloc meets in Brussels on Thursday and Friday to try to clinch the deal on the new climate laws despite strong opposition of Germany, Italy and new eastern member states.
Poland and eight other new EU members say accepting too ambitious greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals will hurt their economies, referring to targets set for all EU industry facing carbon caps under the bloc's emissions trading scheme
(ETS).
Germany says its heavy industry could become less competitive on the international markets if Berlin accepts the targets with no concessions.
But Dimas said he could not imagine failing to reach an agreement in Brussels.
"I am sure that our leaders in Brussels will deal effectively with the remaining issues of the climate and energy package," Dimas said.
Dimas did not rule out allowing companies to meet their emissions limits under the EU ETS by funding forest conservation and tree planting in developing countries if there were a new global climate treaty after 2012, but added that he "personally" opposed that.
(Reporting by Gerard Wynn, writing by Gabriela Baczynska)
