The net contributors to the EU budget believe that enlargement can go ahead without increasing the EU budget. The net recipients are reluctant to lose the EU grants that have helped them progress economically. Germany and the Netherlands are even campaigning for a net reduction in their contributions to the EU budget.

However, the European Commission argues that it would not make sense to offer new member states full access to the regional aid budget as these countries would never be able to absorb more than 4% of their own GDP productively. The British presidency thinks even that figure is too high.

Will Europe's farmers demonstrate when budgets shrink again?

The CAP will require reform to allow enlargement to central and eastern Europe without incurring huge increases in cost. However, many of the countries that receive a large amount of CAP money are resisting any cuts in their receipts.

Another issue concerning the CAP is how soon the new member-states would have full access to it. This is likely to be delayed until the economies of accession countries are more reformed. Any other approach would be prohibitively expensive.

It is likely that the EU will insist on long transition periods, before certain goods can be exported freely to the EU. When Spain and Portugal joined the Union, they were both forced to accept lengthy transition periods for their agricultural products. Therefore these countries are unlikely to be over-generous in dealing with the newcomers from the east.

Long transition periods in establishing the freedom of movement of labour are also likely to be argued for, particularly by Germany.