EU summit: The 'English' meals the leaders have missed out on
- Published
It has been billed as the crunch summit where David Cameron battles to secure agreement for his EU reforms.
But as the talks have dragged on, a sub-plot has kept waiting press entertained, with a succession of "English" meals dangled before the 28 leaders - only to be whisked away as negotiations extend longer than planned. First up:
An English breakfast
This was how aides to European Council president Donald Tusk billed what were to be Friday morning's triumphant talks sealing the deal. Had it been called an "all-day breakfast" they would have been covered. But the 8am fry-up was touted as the key to reaching a deal if there was no agreement on Thursday night.
With "no real progress" made, it was pushed back to 11am, giving it more of an air of a brunch. As it happened though, the bilateral talks carried on.
English lunch
As announced by European Council president Donald Tusk's spokesman, it was then put back to 14:00, before going the way of the breakfast and the brunch.
Afternoon tea
Or, as an EU spokesman, external put it, "late English lunch". With Europe's leaders still at loggerheads, tired and surely starving, would a plate of sandwiches and scones help bridge the gap? It was meant to take place at 15:30 Brussels time, 7.5 hours after the promised breakfast.
But the scones never materialised.
English dinner
No sign of a deal, and no sign of that meal, as the breakfast/brunch/lunch morphed into an "English dinner" - with the time to be confirmed:
The "English" tag attached to each meal did not go unnoticed, as some wondered why, external other parts of the UK were not contributing.
Speculation raged as to what the dinner could consist of:
We might find out, with an EU source suggesting a "good chance" of a deal over dinner. But German chancellor Angela Merkel was taking no chances as she popped out , externalfor a bag of chips.
Angela Merkel (second from right) got herself some chips
She might need the extra sustenance, as leaders have been told to book a hotel room, external for an extra night - so they could be contemplating that English breakfast all over again.