Interesting times at the EU Commission.

At least Padraig Flynn emerged clean from this week's report accusing the Commission of ignoring fraud and corruption, sparking the mass resignation of the entire 20-strong Commission; not so some of his colleagues.

Now the commissioners appear to be turning on one another. Competition Commissioner Karel Van Miert has pointedly suggested that it was the duty of fellow-Commissioner Edith Cresson to quit. The beleaguered Ms Cresson emerged worst from the report but is still defiant.

While Mr Van Miert was trenchant in his opposition to individual responsibility, he said the idea of collective responsibility had been turned on its head.

Designed to protect individual commissioners from political pressure from their own states, it has become a shield behind which individual commissioners can hide from their personal responsibility.