EU leaders could not reach agreement on Thursday to commit to climate neutrality in the bloc by 2050.

The conclusions of a summit in Brussels called on the European Commission and Council to carry out further work to ensure a transition to a "climate neutral EU in line with the Paris Agreement that will preserve European competitiveness, be just and socially balanced, take account of Member States' national circumstances and respect their right to decide on their own energy mix."

A mention of the 2050 aim, which appeared in earlier versions of the text, was struck out after Poland took the lead in blocking it. However, a footnote states that a "large majority" of EU countries back the 2050 target.

The disagreement reflected divisions between Western European countries keen to push ahead with reducing emissions and some Central and Eastern European countries, which are more dependent on fossil fuels and perceive the goal as potentially damaging to their economies and difficult to sell back home without a broader package including financial assistance.

Cash incentive

The push to get the 2050 target into the summit text was originally led by France and seven other Western European states. Its backers grew larger to more than 22, including Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Malta, Cyprus, Greece and Italy but on Thursday met open resistance from a small group led by Warsaw.

In the conclusions, leaders called on the European Investment Bank to "step up its activities in support of climate action" — to indicate that more EU money would be available to help with energy transition. But it wasn't enough for the holdouts.

Warsaw doesn't want to commit to the goal without a burden-sharing mechanism to balance out potentially adverse effects on the economy. Poland's position is shared by the Czech Republic and Hungary.

Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said he blocked the climate goal to “protect the interest of Polish businesses and Polish citizens."

He said the Polish government needs “concrete things on the table” so they can be assured of “what sort of financial measures we will get to modernize our economic sectors."

The next step for EU leaders will be to agree on a package that can convince the last holdouts to get on board with the mid-century goal. "The Poles like their pork well matured," one EU diplomat said.

Next steps

Finland, which is taking over the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU in July and set a national target to become climate neutral by 2035, will chair discussions with other EU countries to address concerns raised on Thursday. The issue will likely be on the agenda of an October summit of EU leaders.

On Thursday, leaders committed to come back to the question "before the end of the year" to adopt the bloc's long-term climate goal "in early 2020," according to the conclusions.

"I think it's a question of time," said another EU diplomat.

Thursday's failure to reach a consensus leaves the EU empty-handed at a U.N. climate summit planned for September 23 in New York, meant to spur countries to boost their efforts to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.

Europe's climate footprint is comparatively small — it emits less than 10 percent of global greenhouse gases — but international officials say the EU should take the lead to get others on board.

Last month, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called on the EU to step up. “I am counting on you, once again, to demonstrate the leadership of the European Union,” he told European Council President Donald Tusk in a letter.

Angry greens

Thursday's disagreement was condemned by the European Green party and environmental groups, who noted it contrasted sharply with the mass climate protests that have been taking place in Europe and elsewhere demanding urgent and stronger action to tackle climate change.

"Failure to set new, higher EU climate targets is irresponsible given the climate emergency we are facing. EU leaders need to urgently come back to the negotiating table at another Council meeting to circumvent the veto," said Wendel Trio, director of NGO Climate Action Network Europe.

Ska Keller, the co-president of the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament, said EU leaders had "ignored the urgency once more and put at risk the future of all of us."

"Every day, people suffer from the climate crisis," she said, adding: "Thousands of people have been going to the streets to protest for climate action and a lot voted for climate protection in the European elections."

Lili Bayer, Zosia Wanat and Kalina Oroschakoff contributed reporting.