Sweden assumed rotating EU presidency

PanARMENIAN.Net - Sweden on Wednesday assumed the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union, promising to combat climate change as well as the rising joblessness in the wake of the global economic crisis.

"The financial crisis and climate change, with the preparation of the Copenhagen conference, will be our main priorities," Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said.

Stockholm wants to get the EU to sign up to a new UN global warming treaty to be negotiated in Copenhagen in December and which would replace the Kyoto Protocol on cutting carbon emissions that expires in 2012.

"We need a global answer to this global problem," Reinfeldt said.

European Partnership, relations with Georgia and Ukraine and EU reorganization as well as Ireland's new referendum on Lisbon treaty will also be in focus.