EU agrees on 2050 climate neutrality without Poland

European Union leaders agreed on Friday (December 13) to a 2050 climate neutrality target for the bloc, after hours of haggling with eastern European states demanding funds to support a transition away from fossil fuels and the continued use of nuclear power.

Speaking after discussions that Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called 'very difficult,' German Chancellor Angela Merkel acknowledged that Poland would need another six months to fully sign up.

The decision came just a day after the bloc's new executive unveiled a 100-billion-euro plan for net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by mid-century, declaring it the EU's "man on the moon moment".

The two-day summit is the first since Germany's Ursula von der Leyen took office as the new head of the European Commission, and a failure to agree on the climate neutrality deal, her biggest initiative, would have been an early setback for the new leadership.

Commenting on the British election, Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said that the results, according to exit polls, meant Brexit would now materialise and that time was short to seal a new relationship deal between the EU and Britain.