I confess. I've spent more time in Brussels in recent weeks than Blackburn. Indeed, I seem to have spent more time in Brussels than anywhere. All thanks to the EU Presidency.

This office officially ends on December 31, but in practice it should all but be over by the weekend.

But it is likely to go out with a bang. For today, tomorrow, and maybe even Saturday, we will be chairing the negotiations on the EU's budget.

For councils and companies, budgeting is usually an annual affair.

For the UK Government the big decisions are made every two years.

For the European Union, however, the process takes place only once every seven years, in what in the usual incomprehensible euro-jargon is called the "multi-annual financial perspective".

So the current budget runs from 2000 to the end of next year.

The new one from 2007-2013 inclusive. And it's just our luck that settling it has fallen under our Presidency.

The Presidencies (which last for 6 months) have been running for each country every 7_ years, so we just missed this happy task last time.

We might have missed it this time too, but for the fact that our immediate predecessors, the Luxembourgers, tried and failed to reach a deal in June.

The UK was one reason for that failure, but we were not alone.

Altogether five countries of the 25 vetoed the budget - Finland and Spain because they were not to receive enough, and Sweden, Netherlands and the UK because we were expected to pay too much.

At the heart of the argument is the flawed system of spending and payments which has grown up.

When we joined the EU in 1973 we got a truly dreadful deal on EU spending, with a lot of the cost passing to us for little back.

Mrs Thatcher negotiated her rebate on EU payments in 1984, but even with that the UK has over the last 20 years paid about twice as much net as have Italy and France, each comparable to the UK in terms of size and national income.

We've proposed a lower overall budget, and what we think is a fairer spread of its costs and benefits.

We're going to work very hard for a deal. But if you like a bet, find a horse instead.

I've no idea whether we'll get a deal; nor even when I will escape from Brussels and then can look forward to spending what remains of 2005 here in my home country, and nowhere else.