It was once the most familiar architectural landmark in the European Quarter of Brussels and, as the home of the Commission, became synonymous with the growing influence of the European Union.
But the Berlaymont has been empty for 10 years now and, although the asbestos that caused its closure has been removed, much remains to be done before the commissioners can move back in.
The final phase of the Berlaymont's refitting comes as the EU itself embarks on a long period of reconstruction. But when he opened the debate about Europe's future in two speeches last week, the Commission President, Mr Romano Prodi, may have been inspired by the spirit of an earlier occupant of the site near the Schuman roundabout.
Before the EU built its massive headquarters there, the Berlaymont was a convent. Some older Brussels residents recall wistfully the pleasure of watching the good nuns and their demure, well-turned-out charges going about their gentle business.
Mr Prodi wants Europe to take a leaf out of the convent's book by entering a prolonged period of reflection before deciding the future shape of the EU. Addressing the European Parliament, he outlined three phases in a process that should lead to a new treaty in 2004.
"The first phase, which has already begun, is one of what I would call `open reflection', during which there must be the widest possible debate at all levels of civil society and in political and scientific circles on the future of Europe," he said.
The second phase, which Mr Prodi would like to begin at the end of this year, would be a period of "structured reflection", during which the opinions canvassed during the year would be synthesised and discussed among the member-states.
Instead of haggling behind closed doors - the usual manner of business within the Council of Ministers - the debate should be open and transparent.
In the final phase, Mr Prodi envisages a return to the more familiar, horse-trading atmosphere of the Inter-Governmental Conference, the very process that produced the Nice Treaty, a document that the Commission President regards with scorn.
ALTHOUGH Mr Prodi's speeches mark the formal start of the consultation process, the debate over the final shape of Europe began with a speech in Berlin last year by the German Foreign Minister, Mr Joschka Fischer.
Speaking in a "personal capacity" to an audience that included all EU ambassadors, he called for a fully federal Europe with its own constitution, army and elected president.
He also suggested that the European Parliament should have a second chamber, or senate, composed of representatives from national parliaments.
The leaders of France, Britain and Belgium have all outlined their visions of Europe's future, most of which envisaged a diminished role for the Commission.
Mr Prodi, as you might expect, begs to differ and points to the cumbersome, exhausting and ill-tempered Nice summit as evidence of the limits of inter-governmentalism. For Mr Prodi, a strong Commission is essential as a guarantor of the balance within the EU of the large and small states.
Mr Prodi's argument won support yesterday from an unlikely source when a leaked memo from Mr Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy supremo, highlighted deficiencies in inter-governmental co-operation on foreign policy.
Mr Solana, who is sometimes referred to in Brussels as "Forrest Gump" on account of his practice of appearing in photographs with the most unlikely collection of world leaders, said that rivalry between member-states had made Europe's common foreign policy ineffective.
"The wide scope of the Common Strategies and the particular, sometimes detailed concerns of individual member-states resulted in a `Christmas tree' approach based on the lowest common denominator where member-states and the Commission insisted on covering all possible aspects of relations," the document said.
Mr Solana's solution to the problem includes making even more decisions behind closed doors and extending the climate of secrecy he has helped to introduce into the EU. Mr Prodi, who believes that European institutions must be more open if they are to gain the confidence of citizens, is unlikely to share his enthusiasm for classifying more documents.
But if the spotlight of popular criticism shifts from the Commission to the representatives of member-states, Mr Prodi can hope to gain some ground during the process of reflection that has just begun.