“It’s true that the member states have been more eager to water down the [energy efficiency] rates than support them,” Martin Lidegaard, the Danish climate minister told EurActiv on the fringes of the London clean energy summit on Wednesday (25 April).

“Some of the articles in the directive – especially Article 6 – have been too watered down and, if we should have a chance to reach agreement with the European Parliament, we have to increase the ambition level of that article again,” he said. 

Chrisochoidis, a Socialist, blasted French President Nicolas Sarkozy for threatening to shut down Greece from Europe's  Schengen passport-free travel zone because of difficulties in controlling its border with Turkey.

Addressing the Parliament's civil liberties, justice and home affairs committee (LIBE), Michalis Chrisochoidis described in dramatic terms the situation faced by Greece and accused France of a lack of solidarity which he said was motivated by electoral interests.

Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy, the Dutch Liberal MEP who drafted the report, received support from his colleagues on most points but some of his “innovative” ideas were deleted from the text in an effort to find a compromise.

The non-binding report was adopted by the Parliament's environment committee on 25 April with 48 votes in favour, 3 against and 5 abstentions. 

Khoroshkovskiy, a former head of the State Security Service of Ukraine and a close ally of President Viktor Yanukovich, said that if the Tymoshenko case was the only unsettled issue in EU-Ukraine relations "we'll settle it too".

Former Prime Minsiter Yulia  Tymoshenko is serving a seven-year prison term for abuse of power, an issue which has strained relations between the EU and Ukraine and practically frozen negotiations over a much-anticipated free trade agreement.

“In the past few months we have witnessed a disturbing trend towards renationalisation and ‘summitisation’: the Heads of State and Government are arrogating more and more decisions to themselves, debating and taking decisions behind closed doors and in disregard of the Community method,” thundered Schulz.

Speaking in front of the College of Commissioners he underscored the need for an even closer cooperation between the Commission and Parliament. That “is an important sign that we are defending the Community method with determination.”

The European Commission wants to end the "many inconsistencies" as to how noise restriction measures are put in place across the EU, saying they may hinder the development of extra capacity in the bloc's already crowded airports.

Skills will top the agenda at the summit, which will be attended by Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, Belgian premier Elio Di Rupo, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso, with more than 1,000 European business leaders and policymakers.

But with the economic and debt crisis rambling on, the news are not positive on the jobs and skills front, the main theme of this year's summit.

The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in the European Parliament announced yesterday at a press conference that they cannot support ACTA. Although the European liberals supported the protection of intellectual property rights, they were concerned that ACTA contravened fundamental rights and freedoms, explained their leader Guy Verhofstadt.

"We've had a fiscal compact. Right now what is most present in my mind is to have a growth compact," he told the European Parliament, calling for this to be founded on Europe's 'six pack' of tighter budgetary rules.

He pressed eurozone states to pursue structural reforms to help generate this growth, saying the ECB's contribution was to deliver stable prices.