EU budget talks will go down to the wire

TOUGH negotiations to hammer out the European Union’s budget for the next seven years will go down to the wire, the Irish Government predicted last night.

As the opening day of the summit of EU leaders continued in Brussels late last night, Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern said that reaching agreement on EU finances until 2013 would be very tough.

However, while accepting that failure would be very damaging to the credibility of the enlarged union, Mr Ahern - in common with many other of Europe’s political leaders - said a deal was possible, though it may involve negotiations the run very late tonight.