As is often the case with big decisions, the EU spent the night talking but there is still no sign of a resolution to differences on the CAP budget for the next seven years.

The Council President found opposition for different reasons to his latest proposals and he spent much of the night in bilateral discussions trying to build consensus.

Heads of state are to reassemble this morning and there is considerable talk of the summit going into Saturday.

Early leavers

The Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Austrian President left early – they are among the hardline countries that want to further reduce the national commitment to the EU budget.

The difficulty remains trying to reconcile EU ambitions on defence and migrants with budget constraints. In this debate, agriculture and the CAP are almost an afterthought.

The worrying issue for Irish and EU farmers is that the debate in the corridors around the summit wasn’t about the hit that the CAP was taking in the proposals tabled by Council President Charles Michel, but why was the CAP still getting 30% of the budget.

The outcome of the budget summit is still unclear and disucssions will resume this morning.

If the Taoiseach was preoccupied with Dáil business yesterday, the EU summit will occupy his first day as caretaker Taoiseach.

Leo Varadkar will have a battle on his hands to retain the same commitment to the CAP and any ambitions for an increase seem very ambitious indeed at this point.