Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore are in Brussels for talks which it is hoped can break the deadlock over the EU's €960bn budget plan.
President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso and European Parliament President Martin Schulz are also attending the talks.
Mr Gilmore, who is lead negotiator on the budget for EU Member States, has warned that failure to kick-start negotiations very quickly will put in jeopardy €325bn of cohesion funds which EU citizens are depending on to create jobs at a time of economic crisis
MEPs have been refusing to negotiate with the Irish Presidency of the European Council on the budget - known as the Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF) - until certain pre-conditions are met.
Last February, EU leaders agreed on a budget of €960bn to be spent between 2014 and 2020 - a reduction of more than €30bn on the previous plan.
The European Parliament must give its consent before such a budget can become law. However when MEPs considered the matter in March, they rejected the document.
Mr Schulz will need to be convinced that MEP's concerns are being met before negotiations can get underway in earnest.
At the core of the dispute is a demand by the European Parliament for any negotiations on the next MFF to be linked to the EU's 2013 budget which, according to the European Commission, is under-funded by more than €11bn.
MEPs have said they want to know how that short-fall in the 2013 budget is going to be filled by Member States, before they will enter into talks on the 2014 to 2020 plan.
Mr Gilmore has said the two budgets are separate negotiating processes, but he believes both can be advanced quickly and take into account Parliament concerns.
On the MFF, MEPs have also indicated they want a number of changes including greater flexibility provisions so that money can be moved from one year to another, a mid-term review so that allocations can be re-examined if and when growth returns to the EU economy, and new ways for the EU to be able to raise money itself, rather than having to rely on commitments from Member States.
Mr Gilmore says he has been given a mandate to negotiate on MEP concerns and believes there is a good basis for reaching a compromise.
If the deadlock can be broken tonight, the revised MFF would go to a plenary vote of the European Parliament where an absolute majority of all MEPs would be required for this budget to pass.
Once Parliament's consent is given, negotiations could then get underway on 67 different headings - providing the legal basis for the budget to become law before the end of the year.
The meeting, which takes place at the European Commission, begins at 5.30pm Irish time.
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