It is most unlikely that the EU/US talks on bilaterals will have made any real progress by then, so I don't know how EI are going to manage this. I thought the Irish government might try for a cosy deal, but with SIPTU/ICTU trying to include the stopover and bilateral rights in their "holistic" approach to aviation issues (including the break-up of Aer Rianta etc), there might be difficulties there.
I thought EI might be able to do a deal by leaning towards Boeing in its imminent fleet selection, but on the other hand, how will that get them over the 50/50 rule; they won't want to fly to new cities if they're still lumbered with that.
The EU is taking a slow route, expecting to reach US bilateral agreement by 2006, so perhaps if US carriers like CO/DL knew this and decided that the best way to move was to try and provoke change by threatening a pull-out from SNN, it might encourage some focusing of attention on this issue. That's a very long shot and in all honesty, unlikely.