Hungary is one of the new EU states who along with several others are pushing for recalculation of the EU's CO2 emission targets.

According to Hungary, using the 2005 figures as the basis for cutting CO2 emissions fails to recognize the progress made by ex-Soviet bloc countries before that date. In January the European Commission set out plans for cutting carbon dioxide emissions based on 2005 levels. Gabor Baranyai, head of EU co-ordination at Hungary's Environment and Water Ministry, said that the Commission should return to 1990 as the baseline year for setting emission targets. His reason was, "because the Kyoto Protocol is counted from that date", the BBC reported.

Under the Kyoto agreement, more than 30 industrialized countries vowed to reduce their greenhouse gases compared to 1990 levels. This is while Baranyai said Hungary's position was supported by fellow EU members Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Slovakia. He added that the efforts of former Soviet bloc countries "are not recognized fully" in the commission's package on CO2 emissions.

The commission's package calls for strengthening the Emissions Trading System (ETS), under which carbon emissions are traded. It sets the goal of cutting carbon allowances year-on-year, in order to achieve an emission reduction of 21 percent by 2020 compared with 2005 levels. EU environment ministers are scheduled to consider progress made towards those targets at a meeting next week.