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Foreign ministers strolled in the late summer heat of southern France towards their meeting, passing the impressive palace of pale stone where once popes ruled and were imprisoned as part of a power struggle over the future of Europe.

Now, the rulers of Europe - or at least some of them - are meeting to discuss a struggle over its most eastern boundaries: the Georgia crisis.

From the outside, the massive, gothic is built as a fortress, not the residence of a ruler with the luxury of peaceful times. The French could hardly have chosen a more impressive venue in the heart of old Avignon for the meeting of European Union foreign ministers.

On his way into the Petit Palais, where the meeting is actually taking place, I asked the British foreign secretary if he saw any sign at all that the Russians were taking notice of the stern noises that emanated from the summit in Brussels at the beginning of the week.

He said: "President Sarkozy has an important job in Moscow on Monday to deliver a very clear and united, firm message that the European Union, all 27 countries, are determined to see Russia live up to the agreement it has made in respect of the six-point peace plan.

"And also to pass on the universal European condemnation of the recognition of the breakaway republics, which for every European leader was the straw that broke the camel's back."

In EU jargon this meeting is a "Gymnich", named after the German castle where the first one took place. It's an informal meeting, which means it can't issue conclusions. But in reality it's likely they will decide whether to go along with the plan of the German foreign minister to launch an investigation into the beginning of the war.

Mr Miliband was not against this. "It is important to make sure false stories about the origins of the crisis do not become holy writ... but equally that serious allegations are followed through."

They will also look at the plan to send EU monitors to report on the ceasefire. This, of course, may be difficult without Russian approval but the veteran Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bilt was dismissive: "The Russian position is 'What is ours is ours, what we have taken is ours, the rest we can negotiate about'. That's classic, it's been so for a couple of hundred years. We will deploy our mission to Georgia without asking for permission".

Many others may not be so tough, although ministers have had an additional chance to have talks about talks: they arrived together from Paris on a special high-speed train, painted in the European Union colours.

The French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner was particularly excited about this, taking a few foreign minister friends to the station especially early to examine this new toy.

We won't know the result of this meeting until later, or perhaps tomorrow. But I am glad to report that we the media are based in the Pope's Palace, in a very grand high-ceilinged room where a papal tribunal used to meet. Appropriately enough, there was no appeal against this judgement. I will pass sentence later.

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