They arrived in Qatar with high hopes of launching a comprehensive round of trade negotiations but, by yesterday morning, EU ministers realised that something had gone badly wrong.
At a meeting in Doha's Intercontinental Hotel, more than a mile from the WTO conference centre, the ministers expressed profound disappointment at a draft declaration negotiated overnight.
The EU Trade Commissioner, Mr Pascal Lamy, acknowledged that little of the Union's ambitious agenda remained in the declaration. "Everybody has got what they want except the EU," sources quoted him as saying.
One by one, the ministers told Mr Lamy what was missing from the text - a strong commitment to linking environmental standards to trade and a promise to discuss labour rights, investment and competition in connection with trade.
In fact, practically nothing was left of the EU's ambition to expand the scope of trade talks and the Union's only achievements appeared to be on behalf of developing countries.
The Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise and Trade, Mr Tom Kitt, praised Mr Lamy's role in brokering a deal that will give poorer countries better access to medicines for such conditions as HIV/Aids, malaria and tuberculosis. "This is an issue in which I have taken a personal interest. This has been achieved in a way that respects the integrity of the TRIPS agreement," he said later.
The TRIPS agreement is a WTO measure that protects patent rights and the ministers in Doha agreed a tentative deal that allows poor countries to overrule patent rights to protect public health.
Other EU ministers shared Mr Kitt's satisfaction at the move but many feared that the EU was otherwise preparing to leave Doha empty-handed. To make matters worse, US delegates were swanning around the conference centre, boasting that they had been statesmanlike in making concessions while the EU was blocking a deal because of farm subsidies.
As the WTO's self-imposed deadline of midnight passed last night, Ireland and France remained firm in their refusal to allow the EU to accept a text that promised the "phasing out" of export subsidies to farmers.
Some EU ministers blamed Mr Lamy's negotiating tactics, arguing that he had conceded too much too soon, leaving agriculture as the biggest sticking point. "The EU pushed harder than anyone else to launch a new round, we advanced the interests of developing countries and now we're being presented as the difficult party," one official said.
Ireland and France were nonetheless isolated within the EU last night, with a number of member-states calling for a compromise on agriculture in order to secure a better deal on the environment. For many EU governments, environmental standards are a more potent political issue than agriculture.
The EU Agriculture Commissioner, Mr Franz Fischler, told ministers that it was his duty to fight for the replacement of the words "phasing out", despite the fact that most member-states were prepared to concede.
The Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, argues that export subsidies represent too substantial an element in Irish farmers' incomes to make a commitment that implies their eventual elimination.
"We have made some progress in that the phrase is in square brackets in the text which means it's up for consideration.
It is only France and ourselves that have this very strong position," he said.
Like Ireland, France faces elections in the first half of next year and the French trade minister, Mr Fraτois Huwart, said yesterday that no French politician could face the electorate having made a commitment to eliminate subsidies.
"The wording about phasing out is not acceptable for the European Union, is not acceptable to France. We must try to find another wording. Really it is a deal-breaking point," he said.
As negotiations dragged on into the early hours, many delegations changed flight reservations and rebooked hotel rooms. But the WTO's Qatari hosts have made it clear that the meeting cannot go on beyond today.
