While Dublin was celebrating Samuel Beckett on film last week, the Brussels press corps was bowdlerising his work in a revue called Reweighting for Godot. The title refers to the reweighting of national votes within the EU, an issue that caused much heartache and a few late nights at last year's Nice summit.
The Press Revue is an annual fixture in Brussels' social calendar and last Saturday's performance in the Albert Hall (yes, really) was packed with journalists, officials and assorted hangers-on. Many of the sketches were based on in-jokes about the daily Commission press briefing, at which journalists are spoon-fed information about the latest directives, reprimands and initiatives.
But most barbs were directed at the President of the European Commission, Mr Romano Prodi, portrayed as a weak, bumbling figure engaged in a hopeless campaign to make an impression. In one sketch, Mr Prodi calls the Commission switchboard to ask if there is something wrong with his phone because he hasn't had a call in days.
"No Mr Prodi, everything seems to be in order . . . No, there've been no messages either . . . Yes, of course, Mr Prodi, you can call us any time you feel like a chat. We're always here," the operator tells him.
Satire is by its nature cruel and often unfair but this parody of the Commission president clearly struck a chord.
A brilliant, intellectually imaginative man with a deep commitment to Europe, Mr Prodi has signally failed to make a public impact since he moved to Brussels.
His soft-spoken, professorial manner and his fluent but eccentric English reinforce the impression that the Commission president has never quite made the psychological adjustment from academic to political life.
Most of his colleagues and officials speak of him with affection but some complain about his rambling style at meetings and his tendency to launch into erudite, historical surveys at the most unexpected opportunities.
"He's got it all and knows what he's doing but he just can't get it across," according to one Commission official.
Part of Mr Prodi's problem lies in the unwieldy nature of the task he set himself following the resignation of the previous Commission amid allegations of corruption and nepotism. Mr Prodi has four main objectives: promoting new forms of European governance; strengthening peace and stability in Europe and boosting Europe's voice in the world; establishing a new economic and social agenda; and achieving "a better quality of life for all".
One of his most difficult tasks has been to reform the Commission itself and Mr David O' Sullivan, who heads the EU bureaucracy, acknowledged re cently that this process has been hampered by the need to keep the institution functioning.
"If we could have shut down for two years we could have produced a perfect reform programme," he said.
The circumstances of the last Commission's fall have encouraged Brussels-based correspondents to view Mr Prodi and his colleagues with a more critical eye. And the present debate about the future shape of the EU is taking place in the run-up to elections in France, Germany and Britain - a factor that could prevent Europe's leading politicians from taking the decisive action Mr Prodi is hoping for.
THE Commission believes it has found a new friend in the German chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroder, who has recently espoused a vision of a federal Europe. Observers in Berlin are more cautious, however, pointing out that Mr Schroder is under pressure from the leaders of Germany's federal states to rein in the power of Brussels.
Indeed, many European leaders view the debate over Europe's future as an opportunity to set a final limit on the process of European integration and to abandon the goal of the EU's founding fathers to form "an ever-closer union".
Despite the criticism of Mr Prodi, he is almost certain to serve a full term as president. And despite the outrage in Ireland over the Commission's budget reprimand, there are signs that popular feeling in Europe could soon begin to move in Brussels's favour. After decades of domination by pro-business conservatives, the EU is developing an image as the champion of consumers and citizens.
The BSE crisis has given the Commission a chance to take the lead in protecting consumers, and trade unions increasingly view EU social policy as a crucial bulwark against the erosion of workers' rights.
If the Commission can improve its image further - perhaps by explaining its actions more energetically - Mr Prodi's personal, presentational problems could recede in importance. And you never know, his phone might start ringing more often too.
