Germany has threatened to convene an emergency meeting of EU environment ministers

Date: 01/04/1999

on 18 May if national negotiators fail to devise a common strategy to limit greenhouse gases soon. The protocol agreed at the Kyoto summit in 1997 allows countries to trade obligations to cut emissions of the gases which are believed to cause global warming, but the EU wants this to be limited. Member states have so far been unable to agree on a ceiling.