Welcome to Dinner!

Linked you'll find the formal letter of PM Tony Blair inviting his colleauges to the European Council meeting starting in Brussels tonight.

As you can see, this will be the budget summit, although there will be an element of the Middle East as well.

In addition, there are some issues of VAT rates, with the French holding everything hostage to that as well.

And then there is the seemingly small, but in fact very important issue of candidate status of Macedonia.

This is the last time that Tony Blair will chair a European summit. To a not inconsiderable extent, his place in the history of European integration will be decided by whether he succeeds or fails tonight and tomorrow.

Let's hope that he succeeds.

UK EU Presidency 2005 Latest News