On the Rond-Point Schumann, the roundabout in Brussels around which some of the main European Commission offices stand, a musician plays a strange concoction of an instrument that is part horn, part string and part woodwind. It seems to represent the mishmash of ideas forced together when the EU executive goes on one of its missions to harmonise a part of European life and the compromises made to get all parties to agree.

However, the sound the instrument creates is strangely pleasing and the busker is rewarded generously by passers by. If only the different arms of the EU could play this well together, but unfortunately they seldom sing along to the same tune. And over the Lamfalussy Report they are creating more of a cacophony than a symphony.