EU Foreign Ministers yesterday backed last week's Agenda 2000 farm deal but insisted that some of its £5 billion budget overrun will have to be clawed back.
At the launch in this Rhineland town of the first serious negotiations of the Agenda 2000 structural funds dossier, the German Foreign Minister and President of the Council, Mr Joshka Fischer, specifically singled out and acknowledged Irish and Portuguese concerns.
These would have to be met, he said, "in a spirit of solidarity" before any deal could be done.
The Italian Foreign Minister, Mr Lamberto Dini, even told journalists there was a growing consensus that no country should lose more than 30 per cent of its structural funding. Were that formula to be applied to Ireland, the Government would be very happy indeed.
Diplomats say the talks gave considerable new hope to the prospects of doing a comprehensive deal on Agenda 2000 in 10 days' time at the Berlin summit. Mr Fischer described them as representing "decisive progress".
During the farm debate the European Commission agreed to a presidency suggestion that it will produce proposals based on French "degressivity" ideas to recoup some of the overspend - although Ireland and others still insist there is no overspend.
"Degressivity" involves the annual clawback of a proportion of the compensation payments paid to farmers for price cuts.
Although the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, had earlier put down a marker that "there is no basis for agreeing either co-financing or degressivity", Irish sources were pleased by the consensus that emerged not to unpick any of the detailed proposals on price cuts and compensation in last week's package.
And they cited Mr Fischer's suggestion to the Commission that its degressivity proposals could be based on a figure of as little as 1 per cent across the board. That level of degressivity would not come anywhere near to covering the overspend, and some see the suggestion as another signal from the presidency that it is lowering its expectations for a substantial reduction in German budget contributions.
With Irish beef producers net beneficiaries of last week's package to the tune of some £50 million, a 1 per cent degressivity figure would not be too painful.
Mr Andrews also warned colleagues that any agreement to a deal would "require absolute assurances on adequate treatment on structural funding and on the Cohesion Fund".
And Mr Fischer's specific acknowledgement of the Portuguese and Irish problems reflects their shared transitional status in losing eligibility for large parts of their country for maximum aid under Objective One. Mr Fischer pledged to ministers that they would come up with an equitable solution for both "in the endgame".
While Ireland received over £6 billion in the current budget period, negotiators have feared that making half that figure this time round will be virtually impossible. New demands for cuts by the Union's budget net contributors in recent weeks have been threatening to push the Irish take down to 25 per cent of the last round.
Mr Fischer did acknowledge, however, that ministers have a long way to go before they can reach agreement on the reform of the EU's system for raising money from member-states, a German priority.
Although the Italians have indicated a new willingness to discuss a system based on GNP instead of VAT receipts, there are still considerable differences about how or whether to build in a system of national rebates when net contributions go too high.
