Slight case of over-booking

Date: 29/02/1996

Journalists are a long-suffering lot, but EU presidency arrangements are beginning to try everyone's patience.

The cause of the problem is logistics, the bane of every scribe's life. When finance ministers met in Valencia last September, more than a handful of people were forced to take an 80-kilometre taxi ride to find a resting place because there were no hotels anywhere near the ministerial meeting.

Now the informal Ecofin meeting in Verona from 12-13 April looks set to be another nightmare. The venue would be fine if it were not for the fact that this small town is playing host - at exactly the same time - to a huge wine fair, drastically reducing the availability of suitable hotels.

“It will mean that the hotels will not be within walking distance of the meeting,” admits one Italian official.