The European Union Commission HQ in Brussels; a dominant section of the true government of the United Kingdom.
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EU finance ministers and central bank chiefs begin a two day informal meeting in Manchester.
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The eurogroup will do what they do best and hold talks on Friday morning, with other ministers joining the talks on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. The main press conference will take place around lunchtime on Saturday.
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Ahead of the meeting, the Chancellor has taken a swipe (but only a swipe) at protectionist trade deals. "The new protectionism we are now seeing... is a wake-up call because it is the last stand from those who believe we can freeze frame, stop the clock, postpone or prevent inevitable change," Gordon Brown writes in the FT.
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Well that souds good but what does it really mean and since the EU is one huge protectionest customs union it is not designed to change its function.
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Joaquin Almunia, the EU economics commissioner, will also back free trade, telling the ministers that "there is no indication that more open economies suffer from higher unemployment". A particularly obvious statement, again the EU is not designed to accomadate open Economics.
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Meanwhile three leading chief executives will address the meeting on the challenges and advantages of globalisation and doing business in the EU, which is indeed a chalange. Other issues on the agenda include rising oil prices and the financing of development work.
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The two day informal meeting in Newcastle-upon Tyne of European Union home affairs ministers concludes on Friday.
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A British presidency press conference is to be held at the end of the summit, which is hosted by Home secretary Charles Clarke and Constitutional affairs secretary Lord Falconer. The event sounds mindnumbingly boring, but there is always hope.
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