Mr Guy Verhofstadt was exasperated on Saturday evening as the Laeken summit ended in an almost farcical squabble over the siting of new European agencies. The Belgian Prime Minister had presided over one of the most important meetings of EU leaders in recent years and launched a sweeping review of the entire workings of the union.
The leaders agreed to move towards harmonising asylum and immigration policies and to consider creating a common border guard. They took initiatives on Afghanistan and the Middle East and declared the European Security and Defence Policy operational.
After such an ambitious summit, Mr Verhofstadt believed that staying up all night arguing about agencies would send the wrong message to the public. So he declared the meeting closed without a resolution of the dispute.
"Hours and days of bargaining would have given a very negative image of the EU and distracted from the Declaration of Laeken," he said.
Accounts of the final minutes of the meeting suggest that the Italian Prime Minister, Mr Silvio Berlusconi, lost his temper when Mr Verhofstadt proposed that a new European Food Authority should be located in Helsinki. Mr Berlusconi said the Italian city of Parma, home of the famous cured ham, would have been more appropriate.
As Austria's Dr Wolfgang Schⁿssel grumbled that the sole EU agency based in Vienna employed just 19 officials, President Jacques Chirac of France introduced an absurd note by proposing a modelling agency for Stockholm. "How would it be if Sweden got an agency for training models, since you have such pretty women?" he is reported as saying.
The row over the agencies was not the only sticky moment. The Belgian Foreign Minister, Mr Louis Michel, upset other member-states by describing a decision to support an international force in Afghanistan as "a turning point in the history of the European Union".
And the violent clashes between police and protesters outside the meeting underscored the remoteness many Europeans regard as a characteristic of EU institutions.
The EU foreign policy chief, Mr Javier Solana, declared that, as they approach the end of their six-month EU presidency, the Belgians have reason to be proud. "It has been a very difficult presidency. The manner in which the presidency has adapted to the reality of September 11th is extraordinary," he said.
Legitimate questions have been raised about the EU's new anti-terrorist measures and the European Arrest Warrant. But there is no doubt about the remarkable efficiency with which the Belgians pushed through, in a few weeks, measures that would normally have taken years to negotiate.
Mr Michel said that, despite the deteriorating situation in the Middle East, the EU's capacity to act together on foreign policy had been enhanced in the past six months. "A few months ago, we were not a global player in the Middle East but now the EU has become a necessary stopping point for all the partners."
By launching a convention to debate Europe's future, EU leaders hope to answer some of the critical questions citizens are asking about the institutions. The Laeken Declaration, which sets the agenda for the convention, is undoubtedly the crowning achievement of the Belgian presidency.
Mr Verhofstadt successfully allayed the disparate anxieties of the member-states to produce a declaration that all could support. Yet by insisting there should be no "no-go areas" in the debate on Europe's future, he has ensured it will be comprehensive.
Despite misgivings about the advanced age of the chairman, Mr Valery Giscard d'Estaing, most observers left Laeken convinced the convention will be a dynamic forum for wide-ranging debate.
As the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, has stressed, the decisions on how to reshape Europe will ultimately fall to the EU leaders. But they will find the convention's conclusions difficult to ignore without being accused of shirking the task of bringing the EU closer to the people.
The summit took an important step towards the physical reshaping of Europe, too, by naming for the first time at a leaders' meeting the 10 candidate countries closest to joining the EU. The leaders concluded that, if negotiations continue at their present pace, all 10 will be ready to join in 2004. Much work remains to be done in the negotiations and the most difficult issues, such as agriculture, have yet to be tackled. But the EU leaders and the Commission agree negotiations are likely to conclude by the end of 2002.
After that, only one thing can stop the historic coming together of two parts of Europe - failure to ratify the Nice Treaty. As the prospect of a second referendum on Nice moves closer, this weekend's summit may serve to concentrate minds in Ireland on the reality of how much is at stake.