Hervorming organisatie Europese Raad: Premiers en Ministers worden gescheiden (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Member states may well be struggling with lofty issues such as the EU Constitution or whether they have any intention of sharing intelligence with one another but when it comes down to it, all that is important is where you sit at the table.

And this is just what the Irish EU Presidency has been finding out.

Dublin has suggested that for the coming European Council at the end of this week just EU heads of state and government should be the ones to sit at an "inner table" while their trusty foreign ministers - and finance ministers - sit one row behind.

This demoting of foreign ministers to mere 'second row-ers' did not go down well in all capitals.

Germany's foreign minister Joschka Fischer is one of those who has objected. The Green minister whose party is in government with the Social Democrats in Germany wants to be represented at the table with the Chancellor and not symbolically behind and below him.

However, the Irish are sticking to their guns. They say that they are responding to increasing demands by EU leaders for a little more privacy.

In the past they have been "lamenting the fact that they cannot interact in a meaningful way", said an EU diplomat.

90 people...

And indeed the meeting room gets pretty crowded at EU summits.

In an enlarged EU with 25 member states, summits attended by heads of state and government, their foreign and finance ministers, plus representation for the European Commission and the Council Secretariat mean around 90 people are present.

"It creates sensitivities having so many people in one room", said the diplomat adding that foreign ministers will not be seated too far away.