It has been a traumatic few weeks for the normally rock-steady European Commission.

The mass resignation of the 20 commissioners on 15 March dominated the headlines and it is not overstating the matter to describe the atmosphere in Brussels as chaotic.

But are there any direct implications for UK solicitors and their clients?First, some background.

The Commission is the executive body of the European Union (EU).

Its roles include proposing legislation; acting as executor of EU policy; being guardian of the treaties; acting as a broker between the parliament and the member states; in addition to having autonomous powers in the fields of anti-trust policy and agriculture and being the main negotiator of free trade.It consists of 16,000 civil servants who are recruited by open competition from throughout the EU.

The 20 commissioners are nominated by the member states and each is entitled to hand pick a 'cabinet' of special advisors.

There are 25 directorates-general - the equivalent of a government department - and a number of specialised services, such as the legal service.So, why did the Commission resign in such a blaze of publicity last week? A number of high-profile cases of fraud, mismanagement and cronyism within the Commission hit the headlines last year.

This prompted the European Parliament - which has the power to sack the entire Commission but not individual commissioners - to set up an independent committee to prepare a detailed report setting out the Commission's misdeeds.

The report was critical of the overall management practices within the commission and singled out a number of commissioners for particular criticism.As the Commission is bound by the principle of 'collegiality', the Commission as a body took responsibility for what had happened and resigned en masse.

The Commission will carry on for the time being in a caretaker role until suitable replacements can be found.

This issue is going to dominate the Berlin summit this week which was scheduled to focus on expanding the EU to the east.

It is likely that a new college of commissioners will be in place by June - before the European elections.What is the effect of its resignation on EU business and issues of interest to the legal profession? The prevailing view seems to be that initiatives already under way will not be affected by the crisis but that no new political initiatives can be put forward until the matter is resolved.

This means that a number of key issues which are being tracked by the Brussels office of the Law Society, such as the proposed Directive on electronic commerce - the sale of goods and services over the Internet and how to regulate this - should go ahead as planned or at worst be subject to delays.

However, a number of key initiatives in the pipeline such as the white paper on competition policy, the proposed Directive on t he liberalisation of pension funds, the proposed Directive on money laundering and the regulation for an EU-wide patent will be temporarily put on hold.Another question mark hangs over the ability of the competition policy directorate effectively to carry out its role in policing mergers, cartels and other anti-competitive practices.

With more than 30 English law firms based in Brussels - most of which are actively involved in the competition field - any setback or delays in this area would have serious repercussions for their clients.The joint Brussels Office of the Law Society of England & Wales and the Law Society of Scotland, which was set up in 1991 to promote the interests of solicitors to the EU institutions, will be adopting a business-as-usual approach despite recent events.

Key issues such as the GATS 2000 preparations, electronic commerce and lawyers' practice rights will continue to be closely watched and reported back in our monthly newsletter, the Brussels Agenda.