Mr Chirac: Criticised for wasting time

Power, psychology, national pride and historical rivalries were the troublemakers as the battle over who got how many votes dragged on and on into the small hours.

The power grab going on between the member states was mirrored in the frenzy of the media centre, where journalists jostled for scarce briefings.

The Nice result is not the radical overhaul that was planned in order for the EU to cope with enlargement.

Many will be deeply critical of what they see as scaled down ambitions couched in the language of success.

The Nice summit was a showcase for Europe at its most awkward and divisive, raising questions of how well it will cope when yet more national interests join the fray after enlargement.

The European way of negotiating has come under fire: the French presidency criticised for time-wasting; the "confessional" bilateral talks; the four days it took to reach a compromise.

The summit was an eye-opener in terms of the amount of horsetrading needed in order to broker a deal.

Deadlock crumbles

Three drafts on re-weighting of votes were needed before Belgium finally backed down - not before having negotiated more votes for applicant countries Romania and Lithuania.

Belgium's prime minister finally backed down

The level of resistance from the small countries sent a surprising message to the French presidency that they were not to be easily steamrollered into an agreement, especially by "the bulldozer" President Chirac.

The final agreement retained the existing voting parity between France and Germany, the traditional motors of European integration.

It also includes new safeguards for decision making, which favour both big and small states.

Not-so-slim institutions

The aim to produce a manageable commission seems to have been fudged in the interests of pacifying the smaller states, determined not to do any commissioner-sharing.

Germany's Joschka Fischer made concessions

The summit agreed to cap the number of seats on the European Commission, but only after it grows in size over the next 10 years or more.

The five big EU states would give up their second commissioners in 2005.

Each new member state would then be able to send one commissioner to Brussels until the EU has 27 members, at which point leaders would set a permanent ceiling of fewer than 27 commissioners, to be appointed by rotation among member states.

The European parliament too is set to expand to a total of 740 members.

Veto scrap heap

There has been success in replacing unanimity voting by majority voting on a list of 39 areas including trade and professional qualifications.

Several countries arrived in Nice determined to dig their heels in on their pet concerns. And the lesson from the summit is that stubbornness can pay off in EU negotiations.

Despite French persistence in including British red lines of taxation and social security on the veto scrap heap, they eventually overlooked it.

Sighs of relief echoed from Ireland, Luxembourg and Sweden.

France managed to cling onto its pet concern of a veto in international trade negotiations on jealously guarded cultural and audio-visual services.

Spain and Portugal can return home with a result that puts off till 2007 a decision to move decision-making on regional aid to qualified majority voting.

Post-Nice

There was general agreement in principle on a system of enhanced co-operation, which would make it easier for some countries to stay out of EU policies while more enthusiastic ones moved ahead.

Defence issues were excluded from this.

At Berlin's request and in return for keeping parity between French and German votes in the Council of Ministers, leaders agreed to a new conference in 2004 to further define the division of power between Brussels, member states and regions.