Every year some 120 Belgian ambassadors abroad come to Brussels for an information day. This year foreign Minister Karel De Gucht outlined the priorities for the Belgian EU presidency, in the second half of 2010. He especially wants to combat the tendency of the bigger EU countries to dominate.

"The European Union cannot become an institute run by a small elite group consisting of the larger member states. And this is exactly the direction we are going in at the moment. It's the big dream of more than one leader of a big member state or an entire state that thinks it is big enough to run the show."

De Gucht points out that in the spirit of the treaties there must be cooperation, not domination. In his opinion Belgium is certainly not alone in its criticism of the growing influence of the larger member states.

"We've been saying this for some time- and now I'm noticing that increasingly more countries share our analysis- except for the big countries themselves - that Europe should not been served by an elite group of directors."

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