Good morning, I\u2019m Jack Power, Europe correspondent for The Irish Times, filling in today for Denis Staunton while he is away. <\/p>\n
When ministers meet to talk politics in Brussels, a senior diplomat is usually by their side. That\u2019s how the officials like it. They get nervous on the rare occasions when EU<\/a> policy discussions are designated as \u201cministers only\u201d, leaving diplomats outside the room where the action happens.<\/p>\n That\u2019ll be the case next week at a \u201cGymnich\u201d meeting bringing together the 27 foreign ministers in Wicklow<\/a>.<\/p>\n Styled as a more informal, free-flowing chat twice a year, the idea is for foreign ministers to knock about their thoughts on the big questions of the day, without the pressure of having to negotiate any firm decisions involving messy compromises. <\/p>\n The first Gymnich of foreign ministers took place in 1974 in Erftstadt, near Bonn, western Germany, at the instigation of then German foreign minister Walter Scheel. The fallout from the 1970s oil crisis and the Vietnam War were on the agenda. <\/p>\n The get-together was held in Gymnich castle, a 14th-century chateau with a moat that belonged to Rhineland nobility. At a certain point, Scheel ushered his fellow ministers \u2013 plus their spouses, who had been invited to attend a dinner \u2013 down to the cellars of the castle for a singsong. <\/p>\n The informal meetings of EU foreign ministers have been known as a Gymnich since then. <\/p>\n It falls to the government holding the rotating Council of the EU presidency to host. Ireland is bringing all the union\u2019s foreign ministers to Druids Glen hotel in Wicklow next week for it. UK foreign secretary Ed Miliband has been invited to join the discussion as well. <\/p>\n The venue was pencilled in when Simon Harris<\/a> thought he would be welcoming the visiting politicians to his constituency backyard, before he swapped the foreign affairs gig for the finance job. <\/p>\n Foreign ministers who travelled to Copenhagen for a Gymnich last year left with a particularly unusual gift. The Danish foreign ministry commissioned sets of gold pens crafted from recycled Ukrainian bullet casings. <\/p>\n