IT TAKES quite a lot to get Brussels hacks excited about the Inter-Governmental Conference. It seems to have been going on for years, and newsdesks back home are distinctly jaded. But the hacks turned out in their hundreds on Monday, nevertheless, to see Mr Doug Henderson, the new British European Affairs Minister, and hang on every word of his "new partnership" speech.
There were as many journalists there, one colleague said, as a Labour majority. Fumbling endearingly with the microphone like the novice he was, Mr Henderson compared the turn-out to a good day at a British Third Division football match. And his reception was as rapt from his fellow personal representatives in the IGC - "you could hear a pin drop," one diplomat said. Tribute indeed.
Mr Henderson, a marathon runner who has been brought in for the last lap of this conference, has provided the reassurance that all here were waiting for. In style and content all is changed and there is now a prospect that the Amsterdam summit will conclude the IGC process, to the intense relief of diplomats, officials and politicians.
But that's not to say the British will be a pushover. There are still plenty of opportunities for slips 'twixt cup and lip. Mr Henderson's master, Mr Tony Blair, may well relish the opportunity of a well-publicised demonstration of his toughness at the summit. If so, the field of battle is likely to be attempts to bring the community institutions and majority - voting into justice and home affairs co-operation.
There's no doubt that the British have stolen centre stage here this week. Change at the helm in London has been marked here by the announcement of an impending change at the helm of Europe's administration, also the end of an era - Sir David Williamson, the Secretary General of the Commission and Britain's most senior official here, will retire shortly.
A natural Europhile, Sir David came in 1987 from heading the European desk in Mrs Thatcher's Cabinet Office to take over the running of the Commission's 15,000-strong apparatus.
Well-versed in the ways of the Brussels bureaucracy as a former deputy director general for agriculture, he took over as the organisation's second Secretary General from Emile Noel and quickly acquired a formidable reputation. An aide once described him as "only person in the Commission who is aware of every single thing that is going on", and there is no doubt that he has wielded enormous influence with both Jacques Delors and Jacques Santer.
He once demonstrated his talent for languages by delivering in Irish part of a speech of thanks for an honorary degree awarded to him by the University of Limerick. And in December last year he described the Irish presidency as among the most successful in his time as Secretary General - no small tribute from a man known for his bluntness.
The succession stakes are well under way, with the clear favourite Sir David's deputy, the highly respected Mr Carlo Trojan. The key post will be allocated after discussions between Europe's capitals at the highest level.
Almost the archetypal European man, half-Dutch, half-Italian, married to a Danish wife, also able to speak French and German, Mr Trojan has served in his current position since 1987 and has played a particularly important role in the EU's cumbersome budgetary procedure.
He is credited with being one of the most critical figures in German unification, having led the special task force in the Commission on the issue and piloted through both Commission and Council of Ministers the controversial £2.4 billion support package.
He also has strong Irish connections and sympathies, having served as EU representative on the International Fund for Ireland, and as architect, in record time of the £240 million Delors peace package for Northern Ireland, a package unusual not only in its scale but in its remarkable bottom-up partnership structure.
If Mr Trojan gets the job few would be surprised to see stepping into his vacated shoes as deputy secretary general another friend of Ireland, Mr Philip Lowe, Mr Neil Kinnock's current chef de cabinet.
Finally, returning to where I started, with hacks and marathon runners, another landmark for an old Brussels hand.
The other IGC marathon man, France's European Affairs Minister, Mr Michel Barnier, slipped out of the meeting on Monday to present the doyen of the press corps, Philippe Lemaitre of Le Monde, with the ultimate French accolade, the Legion d'Honneur.
Lemaitre, one of Europe's most distinguished journalists and an elegant and authoritative writer, Europhile in a specially French way, is due to retire shortly after 34 years in Brussels, most of it for Le Monde. Until recently, friends say, he disparaged even that new-fangled invention, the typewriter, crafting his dispatches with a fine hand by pen.
Mr Barnier, paying tribute to his authority and accuracy in a short and moving ceremony in the French press room of the Council noted that French diplomats in Brussels had to make sure their reports reached the Quai d'Orsay before Le Monde published. Once that happened, there was only one version of events that mattered, that of the Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur, Lemaitre.
