Mr Reynders is boosting Belgium

Christian Noyer, the incumbent, is due to step down by May, and would ordinarily be replaced by another French national.

But since the Frenchman Jean-Claude Trichet is currently in line for the job of ECB president, in succession to Wim Duisenberg, other nations are coveting the vice-presidency.

Last week, Didier Reynders, Belgium's finance minister, said the job should go to a Belgian, since the presence of the Benelux countries on the ECB's board would be eliminated by Mr Duisenberg's departure.

With a string of ECB board members due to step down over the next few months, the business of appointing successors has become unexpectedly complicated.

Location, location, location

A related problem, again bound up with issues of national pride, is the location of a new EU bank for the development of the Mediterranean region.

Mr Noyer's job is being fought over

Some members want to see the Euro-Mediterranean Development Bank made a subsidiary of the European Investment Bank, the EU's existing finance arm.

But Spain, which currently holds the presidency of the EU, wants a fully-fledged new bank based in the Spanish city of Barcelona.

This would have a knock-on effect on another location debate, this time over the site for the Food Safety Agency, for which Barcelona is one of the bidders.

The British problem

A further flurry of minor complications centres around UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, who has clashed with the EU orthodoxy in the past.

Mr Brown's tax scrapping plans are causing concern

This time, media reports over the weekend indicated that Mr Brown may become embroiled in a row over his plans for tax breaks on houses in poorer areas.

The European Commission is worried that Mr Brown's decision to waive stamp duty on cheap houses in some areas could constitute a breach of rules on state aid.

Mr Brown is also at the forefront of plans to scrap temporary government aid for airlines. The insurance cover was intended to help them out after 11 September.

The plan, which could see government support scrapped as early as 20 March, is likely to prove controversial.

Wine wars

Most minor, but possibly most controversial of all, is a plan to slap a new tax on wine.

Celebrate, while you can still afford it

The alcohol excise duty, planned to come into force next year, could raise the price of wine by 14 euro cents (9 pence; 12 US cents) a litre.

The Italian government is strongly against the plan and aims to use the Ecofin meeting to shoot it down.

Wine, a major export for Italy, is currently subject to almost no tax within the country, while other EU states levy high excise taxes.

Some Italians commentators suspect a conspiracy among beer-drinking, high-tax North European countries is behind the proposal.