Ability of summit to agree on changes doubted

Twenty-nine European heads of government were last night making their way to the rain-soaked French Riviera for meetings intended to pave the way for an EU that will include most of their number. EU leaders this morning meet leaders of 13 accession states and Switzerland. The EU summit that follows this meeting is charged with equipping the Union with structures capable of absorbing such numbers without developing decision-making gridlock.

But there are doubts about whether the summit will be able to broker a deal on treaty changes, negotiations on which have taken some 330 hours so far at official and ministerial level without clear breakthroughs in the key areas. The Finnish Foreign Minister, Mr Erkki Tuomioja, has warned that the EU is not prepared for its summit and has failed to lay the groundwork for a successful meeting, the Berliner Zeitung newspaper reported yesterday. "There have not even been real efforts to reach a resolution. Until now, everyone has only constantly repeated their positions."

Germany's Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroder, called on his colleagues to have the courage to sacrifice their national interests at the summit in order to succeed in building a united Europe. "Let us show courage. Let us put national interests in second place," Mr Schroder said during a visit to Poland.

But the problems of the French presidency in wrestling with a hugely complex agenda may be compounded by internal difficulties between President Jacques Chirac and the Socialist government of Mr Lionel Jospin. Success at summits usually depends on the extent to which France and Germany see eye to eye, and relations between the two have been strained by the former's refusal to accept a new reweighting of votes in the Council of Ministers which would leave Germany, which has a far larger population, with more votes.

Such differences have been compounded by what one diplomatic source described as the refusal of President Chirac to brief his Foreign Minister on the outcome of his private talks with Mr Schroder.

Lara Marlowe adds: Up to 50,000 people marched through the streets of Nice yesterday demanding a "social Europe", full employment and an end to social inequities.

The Nice summit marks the first time that a European Council has inspired a "countersummit" similar to the one that wrecked the World Trade Organisation meeting in Seattle a year ago. It may get rougher today as the Confederation Paysanne, led by Mr Jose Bove, joins in. Mr Bove, who became a French hero after leading a raid on a McDonald's restaurant, was manhandled in Paris yesterday when he tried to disrupt a WTO meeting at the Crillon Hotel. The French Agriculture Minister later apologised to him.

Ms Lucette Sergent, a 70year-old retired postmistress, had travelled for 13 hours to reach Nice with friends from the CFDT union. "I want workers in Portugal and Spain to receive the same salaries as French workers," she said. And when the candidate countries join the EU, she wants them to have equal rights too.

The French government understood the workers, Ms Sergent continued, but as for the British, "they burned our Joan of Arc and gave us mad cow disease".

French students with their hair in dreadlocks drank beer as they tagged along at the back. "We're against everything," Mr Sacha Varony (23), a music student said. He wore an anarchist federation sticker saying, "Don't vote. Take action." Mr Varony found the march disappointing because there were no looters. For him, the only advantage of EU membership was the ability to travel freely to Switzerland and Holland to buy marijuana.