Berlin was adamant in the run-up to this week’s EU summit that it would not be reduced to a confrontation between small Poland and mighty Germany. Yet as the EU’s 27 members inched towards an agreement that would address Warsaw’s fears of losing weight in a redistribution of voting rights, most of the talking was taking place between the leaders of Poland and Germany.

Officials close to Angela Merkel, the chancellor, said that until Friday evening, she had privately met four times with Lech Kaczynski, the Polish president, to try to strike the deal that would make her last summit as EU president (Germany holds the rotating presidency) a resounding success.