IT WILL cost millions of pounds, lead to the consumption of much fine food and wine, preoccupy much of Ireland’s police force and focus worldwide attention on the relationship between the world’s two biggest power blocks: the EU and US.

But even though it will last only two and a half hours, European Union officials admit it is a “waste of time”.

The 2004 EU-US summit taking place tomorrow in the isolated 16th-century Dromoland Castle in west Ireland will bring together George Bush, the US President, with Bertie Ahern, the Prime Minister of Ireland, who holds the rotating presidency of the EU, and Romano Prodi, the outgoing President of the European Commission.

In the advance publicity Signor Prodi declared: “I am confident that this summit will be an opportunity to revitalise our partnership with the US.”

Mr Ahern wrote in an Irish newspaper: “Ireland and Europe clearly have a critically important economic interest in maintaining good relations with the United States.”

The subject matter on the official agenda could hardly be more important, addressing the economy, the world-wide Aids problem, counter-terrorism, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and Iraq.

But an EU diplomat said: “We’re not taking any notice of it. All the important decisions are being made elsewhere.”

When first organised, EU-US summits occurred every six months but have now been reduced to once a year. The problem is that George Bush, the executive of the world’s most powerful country, is not on equal terms with his hosts. “There’s a pretence that Bertie speaks for all 25 nations of the EU, when of course he only really speaks for a tiny nation. And Prodi is a lame duck on his way out,” a Brussels official said.

In reality the summit is a stopover between far more important gatherings, where Mr Bush meets real heads of state. He has just hosted the G8 summit at Sea Island in Georgia, where he met the leaders of the UK, Germany and France. He is now on the way to the summit of Nato heads of government in Istanbul.

The US-EU summit will at least take place against a backdrop of improving relations. The last summit happened when Europe was viciously divided over the Iraq war. The EU is now less divided, has enlarged to 25 countries and has just agreed its first constitution.

The only deal due to be signed is an “inter-operability” agreement between the American GPS satellite navigation system and the EU’s rival system, called Galileo, which is being developed.

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