European diary: Brussels ground to a halt last Friday and for once the EU couldn't be blamed for the glut of negative newspaper headlines declaring "gridlock" and "paralysis".
Belgium's first general strike in more than 10 years caused commuter chaos as public transport was forced off the road and rail network.
Many offices closed for the day and even supermarkets shut their doors as staff manned union picket lines.
In a week that saw EU foreign ministers narrowly avert a damaging impasse over beginning EU-entry talks with Turkey, the European Commission was one of the few institutions not badly affected by the walk-out of 300,000 workers across Belgium.
"They are striking over their pensions," explained one disappointed shopper turned away from her local supermarket by strikers waving bright red banners proclaiming their defence of Belgium's generous retirement and pension rules.
Under employment law in Belgium, workers can retire at 58, although in practice some people leave the workforce even earlier. Less than a third of workers between the ages of 55 and 64 are employed in Belgium compared to 56 per cent in Britain and 69 per cent in Sweden, according to Eurostat, the commission's statistics office.
The Belgian love affair with retiring early is proving a costly drain on the state finances, according to the government, which fears there are too few young workers to support the pension system. It has proposed a raft of measures to raise the retirement age to 60 and cut back on some early retirement packages. Incentives are also being offered to encourage people to stay in work longer rather than retire.
Unsurprisingly, trade unions oppose the government's strategy, which they fear will undermine the Belgian economic and social model. They are threatening more industrial action in the run up to the winter in defence of workers' employment rights.
At the daily commission press briefings at the Berlaymont, the issue of workers' rights was also high on the agenda last week. But it was the French economic and social model that caused a stir among commission officials, many of whom were smarting from a fierce verbal assault delivered by French president Jacques Chirac.
Following a day of industrial unrest in France over its own proposed reforms, Chirac accused the commission of failing to defend Europe's economic, financial and social interests. He also called for greater protection of industry as the US computer giant Hewlett Packard announced plans to shed more than 1,000 jobs in France, where about 10 per cent of people are currently unemployed.
"Is it normal for the commission to be disinterested in a problem?" asked Mr Chirac. "This is one of the reasons that explains the current disavowal of Europe ... It is a problem that must be looked at." Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso, who has placed economic growth and jobs at the forefront of the commission's agenda, responded by urging national politicians to stop using the EU as a "whipping boy" for their own problems.
"I think there is an ethic of European responsibility which obliges us to explain to citizens what each one can do, and I appeal to politicians to respect this ethic," he told Le Monde following Chirac's comments.
Privately, commission officials were less discreet when chatting to journalists about Chirac, who at a meeting with Tony Blair last week insisted both leaders were "determined to agree to be a force for harmony for tomorrow's Europe".
This very public "entente cordiale" will be sorely tested in two weeks when EU leaders descend on London to debate the European social and economic model. The informal summit hosted by Blair - which was yesterday downgraded to a one-day meeting - risks becoming a showdown between the Anglo Saxon economic and social model, which is characterised by low taxes, labour flexibility and a small public sector, and the continental model that favours higher taxes, bigger government and greater protection of worker's rights.
Buoyed by its success in beginning talks with Turkey, Britain will feel it can use the informal summit at Hampton Court to generate more debate on the future of Europe.
But the current industrial unrest in Belgium and France over proposed economic reforms points to a difficult summit for both leaders, who will also work towards laying the groundwork for a new EU budget for the period 2007 to 2014.
Sharp differences over the future of the Britain's EU budget rebate and the common agricultural policy (CAP) between Chirac and Blair will probably mean that relations remain frosty.
Commenting on last Friday's strike in Belgium one ex-pat living in Brussels predicted "a winter of discontent and strikes" ahead. And few observers will be surprised if there isn't a chill wind circulating around the corridors of Hampton Court later this month as Chirac and Blair meet again to try to prevent "gridlock" at the EU.