It has been a month to remember for the Eurocrat. At the start of March he helped to save the world with a masterly stroke of his Mont Blanc pen at a European summit; this Sunday he will share a bottle of Lafite 1957 with a few close friends and toast the European Union's 50th anniversary.

The Eurocrat has committed his life to the Treaty of Rome's vision of "ever closer union". Even his private life has embraced European integration: his wife is French, his lover is Spanish, he pays maintenance (true to the spirit of EU solidarity) to the Greek mother of his 10-year-old son.