The week in Strasbourg: The first European Parliament session of 2006 will not easily be forgotten either by parliamentarians or locals who witnessed serious rioting outside the building on opening day.
More than 10,000 dockers and other port workers protested over European Commission proposals to liberalise working conditions at EU ports, and their demonstration soon turned violent.
Apart from injuries to policemen and some protesters, it was odd to see teargas and smoke bombs, bricks and rivets hurled at the parliament buildings, which symbolise the peaceful way for Europeans to resolve difficulties.
When the smoke cleared and the wounded were taken away, the anger of MEPs across all parties was articulated loudly because the majority supported the port workers' opposition to the commission proposals.
And so it was on Wednesday when they sank the proposals in a building with broken windows and a damaged façade - and sent commissioner Jacques Barrot back to consult his colleagues to find a new way forward.
But the week will be remembered, too, as one of the busiest in recent years in terms of workload. The easiest way to check this is to ask the television and radio personnel who provide the media with feeds and links how busy they have been.
With the port services debate, the Austrian presidency kick-off, debates on the future of Europe, the new sugar regime and statements on the gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine, this was one of their most hectic weeks in years.
If that were not enough, the parliament also had to contend with the problems facing homosexuals in Europe, the detention by the CIA of prisoners on EU territory, and a move to devise a strategy to prevent the trafficking of women and children at EU and global levels.
The figures in this sad trade are staggering, with a report saying an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 men, women and children are trafficked across international boundaries each year. Around 80 per cent of these victims are women and girls, and up to half are minors.
The report contended that more than 100,000 women are victims of trafficking in the EU. MEPs demanded that member states enforce their own laws and bring in harsher punishments for traffickers, accomplices and persons seeking sexual services from minors.
Interestingly, the report called specifically on Germany to take appropriate measures during the World Cup football tournament later this year, to prevent the trafficking of women and forced prostitution.
MEPs were claiming a victory for consumers with the establishment of a committee to investigate the collapse of the Equitable Life Assurance company in Britain in 2000, in which more than a million Europeans, 6,500 of them Irish, lost money.
A pressure group had sought the parliament's help, through its petitions committee, to investigate the issue and put pressure on the British government to compensate those who lost money.
On Thursday another group, retired farmers who believe they lost out by opting for the EU early retirement scheme, passed through the battered doors of the parliament seeking justice for their cause, using the same route as the Equitable Life victims.
On Wednesday the commission proposed a directive to help member states prevent and limit floods, which since 1998 have caused some 700 deaths, displaced half a million people and caused at least €25 billion worth of damage.
The commissioner for the environment, Stavros Dimas, said that in the coming decades there was likely to be a higher flood risk in Europe and greater economic damage because of climate change.
Finally, MEPs approved a regulation which will make it possible to freeze funds and economic resources for a list of persons suspected of involvement in the killing of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.