This year's hot, dry summer will be repeated many times in the future and will become normal in the next 40 to 50 years if climate scientists are correct, write Fiona Harvey in London and Andrew Bounds in Brussels.

The Hadley Centre, a research centre at the UK's Met Office, has predicted that over the next 80 years, Europe will experience 50 per cent less rainfall in summer and 30 per cent more rainfall in winter.