The long-awaited return to the Berlaymont building, the European Commission headquarters that has taken a mere 13 years and €550m to refurbish, takes place this week.

Last month, plans for the bureaucrats' move back into the Brussels equivalent of a skyscraper were thrown into disarray by the European Parliament's reluctance to ratify the new set of commissioners. Only a last-minute withdrawal of the Italian commissioner-designate Rocco Buttiglione after his controversial comments on homosexuality and the role of women averted a full-blown constitutional crisis.