There was a growing belief in the European Parliament last night that the European Commission will survive Thursday's motion of no confidence.
Announcing a package of internal reforms, the President of the Commission last night pledged to work to heal the "severely tested" trust between MEPs and the EU executive.
His proposals go a long way to meeting the demands of the largest group, the Socialists, but were met with scepticism by other groups, notably the Liberals, whose leader, Mr Pat Cox, set the tone of the debate.
Mr Santer's hand was strengthened by a lifeline thrown by the German Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroder, who called on MEPs to back the Commission and proposed the establishment of an anti-corruption group drawn from the Parliament, the Commission and the European Council to investigate the charges against the Commission.
The Commission met the German government in Bonn to review the Presidency programme before the debate.
Mr Santer then faced an angry house, with even his Socialist and European People's Party supporters voicing strong criticism of the Commission, although opposing no-confidence as an unnecessarily severe sanction.
The motion was put down following the Parliament's refusal to clear the 1996 accounts in December because of claims that the Commission had failed to respond to cases of fraud and mismanagement and of cronyism on the part of some Commissioners.
While MEPs have the right to sack the whole Commission, they are not supposed to target individual Commissioners. However, the legal constraints did not stop strong support for attempts by Mr Cox to focus his attack on two Commissioners, Mr Manuel Marin and Ms Edith Cresson.
Acknowledging the legal constraints, Mr Cox said they could nevertheless send a strong political message to the two that they should consider their position. Collective Commission responsibility should not become a means of shirking personal responsibility, he argued to applause.
Clearly stung by the personal criticism, Mr Marin and Ms Cresson unexpectedly intervened late in the debate to respond to specific charges. Mr Marin, a vice-president of the Commission who has served 14 years, told MEPs he was deeply hurt by the debate. He was willing to accept his share of responsibility for mistakes which he might have made but he had never covered up fraud.
Ms Cresson said she was willing to respond to any of the Parliament's complaints in any committees "at any time and place".
Last night the Green MEP, Ms Nuala Ahern, renewed her group's call for Ms Cresson to go. She said she had personally investigated the manipulation of research funds in Ms Cresson's office and alleged that files had been tampered with on her instructions.
Earlier, Mr Schroder said that the EU needed a stable Commission to have any hope of reaching agreement on Agenda 2000, a package of EU budget and farm reforms.