The European Commission enters its last year in office, alive but severely mauled, after 42 per cent of the members of the European Parliament backed yesterday's motion of no-confidence in the Commission.
Although two-thirds of the vote was required to sack the EU's executive, the tally of 232 MEPs to 293 represents by far the most substantial ever snub by MEPs, double that on the hugely controversial BSE issue in 1997.
No one will resign, but the Parliament and Commission are to establish a joint working group of "wise men" to investigate the allegations of mismanagement and fraud within the Commission and report by March 15th.
Should the joint working group name a commissioner as seriously culpable, the President of the Commission, Mr Jacques Santer, will be expected to dismiss him, or more likely her.
The leader of the Socialist Group, Ms Pauline Green, said to jeers from the smaller parties that the result and the reforms promised by Mr Santer were "the most extensive reform ever of the workings of the Commission".
A "delighted and relieved" Mr Santer admitted that the parliament had sent out a "firm message" to the Commission and pledged to put the committee in place fast to implement its recommendations.
He also promised to implement his own promised eight-point programme of reforms with vigour, although several Commission sources suggest he has yet to clear it with colleagues.
Responding to questions about the right to dismiss commissioners, Mr Santer pointed to the new powers of the President in the Amsterdam Treaty; powers, he joked, he would be prepared to use if he were reappointed.
Of that possibility there is no prospect.
Yet, more significantly in the longer term, yesterday represents a pronounced shift in the EU's institutional balance.
The Parliament has substantially and irreversibly extended its authority over the Commission and strengthened the now almost irresistible case for a treaty change to allow MEPs the right to sanction individual commissioners. At present the MEPs can only sack all 20.
As the Irish Commissioner, Mr Padraig Flynn, pointed out, yesterday's vote was "just a staging post leading up to the nomination of the next commission. Parliament will then undoubtedly return to visit again the issue at its hearings [on the new commission]". At that stage, Mr Flynn argues, prospective commissioners will find it difficult to argue against individual accountability to Parliament, and with a Commission endorsing that view, a treaty change to that effect would be difficult for member-states to resist.
The point was emphasised again during the debate by the Liberal leader, Mr Pat Cox, who said that the week's turmoil had proved that the rules of the house were self-evidently inadequate. The prohibition on individual sacking was simply not workable, he argued. "And, like the ploughshare of old, we decided to turn your shield of collegiality into our sword of accountability," he told Commissioners.
Mr Cox complained to journalists that the establishment of the committee of wise men was effectively an abdication by Parliament of its own responsibility and simply a manoeuvre to get the Socialists off a procedural hook they had impaled themselves on.
The President of the Parliament, Mr Jose Maria Gil-Robles, said after the debate that those who complained that the Parliament had failed to bring the Commission to account "must give us the powers we don't have". And the leader of the British Labour group, Mr Alan Donnelly, later reflected the view of many in arguing that if MEPs had actually sacked the Commission they could have lost the impetus for change. The result was the best possible outcome, he said.
Most Irish MEPs welcomed the result of the vote.
Mr Brian Crowley (Fianna Fail) said he was delighted the Commission had been endorsed.
Ms Mary Banotti (Fine Gael) said it was a great day for the Parliament.
Ms Bernie Malone (Labour) said that in parliamentary terms the Socialist strategy had been the winner.
The European People's Party (EPP), of which Fine Gael is a part, had been deeply split, she said, while Mr Cox "should know you can't cherry-pick commissioners". She accused him of raising false expectations.
Mr Jean-Claude Pasty, the Gaullist leader of Fianna Fail's group, the Union for Europe, said the vote should not be seen as a blank cheque for the Commission.
Ms Patricia McKenna (Greens) said she was disappointed in the vote and accused the Parliament of backing down. She, Ms Nuala Ahern, Mr Cox and Mr Jim Nicholson (Ulster Unionist) were the only Irish MEPs to back the no-confidence motion.
When the Parliament met to vote yesterday morning, overnight hopes that the EPP could agree a new compromise resolution were dashed by a 90-70 vote in the group against removing the names of the two tainted Commissioners, Ms Edith Cresson and Mr Manuel Marin, who have been the focus of most parliamentary concern.
But the minority was willing to oppose the naming of the two Commissioners when its own resolution came to the floor of the house. They removed Ms Cresson's and Mr Marin's names with majorities of 182 and 209 respectively, and then defeated the main resolution.
The Socialists were then able to press their own resolution. This, with its provision for the committee of wise men, was passed by 319 to 157.
When it came to the motion of no-confidence, it was defeated by 293 votes to 232, with 27 abstentions.
There was some surprise that only 552 out of 626 MEPs turned up to vote on the censure. Among those not present were two MEPs from Northern Ireland, Mr John Hume (SDLP) and the Rev Ian Paisley (DUP).