A two-day European Union summit that opens in Brussels on Thursday will be held for the first time without the participation of its 27 members' foreign ministers.
The format was laid out in the Lisbon Treaty on EU institutional reform that came into force on December 1.
According to a European Commission spokesman, the heads of state and government will discuss in the Belgian capital developments at the UN climate change conference underway in Copenhagen.
Some elements of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change expire in 2012.
A new binding treaty to cut global greenhouse emission is widely expected to be agreed during the talks in the Danish capital. However, some observers say the summit is more likely to just outline principles and directions for a post-Kyoto framework.
Herman Van Rompuy, elected the EU's first president on November 19, will attend a working dinner of EU leaders on Thursday. Rompuy officially takes office January 1, so the Brussels summit is being headed by Sweden's Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency.
BRUSSELS, December 10 (RIA Novosti)
