Spanish premier, EU leader urge Russia to ratify Kyoto Protocol Text of report by Spanish news agency Efe Barcelona, 14 March: The current president of the EU, Jose Maria Aznar, and the president of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, have handed over a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin in which they urge him to promote the ratification by Russia of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. In the letter, to which Efe has had access, Aznar and Prodi explain that on 4 March the council of EU environment ministers agreed the adoption of a decision for approval of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change on behalf of the European Community. They explain that this agreement is an important step for the EU in fulfilling the political pledge to achieve ratification of the Protocol before the Johannesburg summit on sustainable development. To this end, Aznar and Prodi report that only the internal ratification processes in each of the member states have now to be concluded and they emphasize that these are at an advanced stage and in some cases have been completed. "Therefore, we have complete confidence that the instruments of ratification of the European Community and of the 15 member states will be able to be lodged with the Secretariat of the United Nations within the time scale anticipated, in other words, in early June of this year," they add. However, the letter emphasizes that for the Kyoto Protocol to be able to enter into force in the near future it is not enough for EU ratification to be guaranteed and they thus urge Putin to ensure that Russia also moves ahead with ratification. They make this request "convinced of the Russian Federation's resolute commitment to the Kyoto Protocol" and believing that in this manner the EU and Russia would continue to show the "leadership" which they believe they have shared "with such fruitful results, in international cooperation in the fight against climate change".