A pained but defiant Jacques Santer said yesterday that this had been "the most testing period" for himself and the other members of the outgoing EU Commission, "both professionally and personally". The Commission President was addressing the European Parliament in the latter's first session since the commissioners' resignation.
Acknowledging the decision as a "painful but necessary one", he nonetheless admitted that he and his colleagues "were dismayed by the way in which far-reaching and general conclusions were drawn from the cases examined".
They had tried harder than any before them to improve the Commission's working methods, he said, and many of his reforms were now taking root: "But perhaps it is an inevitable fact of history that crises often strike not when things get worse but when they are getting better."
Responsibility was a prerequisite for a modern and accountable civil service and the concept must apply in equal measure to all the institutions. "This means matching tasks asked of the Commission and resources made available to it. Whatever the political pressure, the Commission must be ready not to undertake new tasks when it is not provided with the means - human and financial - to fulfil them."
His address was greeted with a short, polite round of applause.
The themes of matching tasks to resources and the need for reform through all the EU institutions echoed throughout the surprisingly low-key debate. The Commission's resignation was an acid test for Europe but could also be a salutary shock, said Mr Joschka Fischer, the German Foreign Minister and acting President of the Council.
A strong and active Commission was needed and it must be given the resources to be able to properly manage its duties, but reform - already begun by Mr Santer - was also needed from top to bottom. The crisis gave them the chance to accelerate the necessary reforms and to go even deeper than foreseen. "Together, we must seize this chance," he said.
He adopted a reassuring note by stating that he was confident that Agenda 2000 would be dealt with in this and the next term and that they hoped to effect agreement on a choice of candidate to be presented to parliament in time for its April session, as well as candidates for the new Commission in May.
The Socialist group leader, Ms Pauline Green, called for the independent experts to complete the second part of their report on the structure of the European Commission, declaring that she was suspicious of the motives and the backing behind those arguing that the experts had done their job. She said: "I believe that it would be very convenient for some if the independent group of experts were to be prevented from delving in the required detail into the workings of different directorates-general."
Mr Pat Cox, president of the Liberal group, said that they found themselves now in the process of creating a new, minimum and acceptable European norm for the management of public affairs in Community institutions, which did not permit cultural exceptionalism. "Hiring one's dentist to do work of dubious - if any - European value is not acceptable."
He then switched to French to suggest that the language of Moliere might by enriched by a new, typically European concept of berthelisme (named for the aforementioned dentist), to mean a bogus job paid for out of European pockets.
But the syndrome de Berthelot was not of course confined to the Commission. "We cannot demand of other institutions what we will not demand of ourselves."
He also criticised the Council as one of the two arms of the budgetary authority for failing to note the critical reports from the European Court of Auditors: "This failure should caution a certain modesty in some of our capital cities who seem prone to see the failings revealed in certain days as almost uniquely those of the European Commission."
Ms Bernie Malone pointed out that most EU funding was actually administered by national governments. "There is considerable evidence of fraud and malpractice in this area - it is the responsibility of the governments to address this," she said. It was time too for the Council to stop making decisions behind closed doors.
Mr Joe McCartin said that he regretted that the consequences were disproportionate for some members of the Commission and that so many good people who had done so much of importance now appeared in the eyes of Europe to be discredited.