European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso is to urge all political leaders in Northern Ireland to agree on power sharing.
Mr Barroso is to write to the leaders of the four main parties inviting them to Brussels for talks.
The move was confirmed today by Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern, who will discuss the plan with Mr Barroso in Brussels today.
A month ago Taoiseach Bertie Ahern asked the president of the EC to meet the North's four main party leaders.
It is understood a number of areas on how the EU might be able to support a devolved power-sharing administration at Stormont are to be explored. Among them are additional funding and the thorny issue of corporation tax, which is more than double that of the Republic.
The intervention of Europe will also heighten the pressure on Democratic Unionist leader the Rev Ian Paisley and Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams to end the deadlock over policing and justice.