Am I just caught up in the excitement, or might I be right in thinking this could well have been one of the most significant political weeks ever in the European Parliament? There was a palpable air of stakes being upped in Strasbourg this week, with parliamentarians flexing their muscles and, like rookie supermen early in the film, taking themselves by surprise with their own new powers. Last time I can remember that feeling was another seminal moment: the fall of the Santer Commission in 1999. But this time, they had ingredient X: Lisbon.

SWIFT rapporteur Jeanine Hennis is congratulated after the vote (EP Flickr)

A “yes” to the Commission did not come as a surprise, but no-one who was there could mistake the political buzz surrounding the decision, itself the result of a process which will have undoubtedly left scars and unfinished business. The debate in the chamber was passionate, the political clashes genuine, the language straight, at times to the point of being what we stuffy Brits might call “unparliamentary”. This was not the turgid technocratic consensus stuff of euromyth. Nor was it play-acting. Under the surface were good old-fashioned ideological clashes, contrasting personalities, plus, variously, hefty doses of radical euro-federalism and militant euroscepticism (with not one, but two, allusions to violence on the streets!) in the smaller groups. Not a routine occasion in anyone’s book. In the end, Barroso got his Commission, indeed with a higher proportion of MEPs supporting him than last time (he was spotted in the chamber examining a table comparing the two occasions), but he would be very optimistic to expect a long honeymoon period with this parliament.

There has rarely been a greater compliment to Parliament, nor a greater acknowledgement of its new-found power

Parliament’s “no” to the SWIFT agreement to provide banking data to the US authorities was a less foregone conclusion, but was in the end passed by a convincing majority. This was the EP taking a position against European governments, the Commission, the Council and (gasp!) the US administration of Barack Obama. Much indeed was made of the lobbying efforts of the Americans, with European imaginations caught by Hillary Clinton’s widely reported calls to Jerzy Buzek, and the inhabitants of the Brussels bubble equally engaged by the efforts of US Ambassador Kennard in the corridors of Strasbourg. For all the outrage of some at the US lobbying of MEPs, there has rarely been a greater compliment to Parliament, nor a greater acknowledgement of its new-found power.

The ultimately solid majority decision to block the SWIFT agreement belied a cliffhanger and a close political call. Immediately before the final decision, a motion to postpone it was defeated by a slim margin of just over 30 votes. The joy of rapporteur Jeanine Hennis-Plaschaert as Parliament followed her recommendation on the substantive vote was unalloyed and the delight of her supporters genuine, though, one might fancy, tempered by a sense of – well, yes, – history.

There was other business in Strasbourg this week of course, but the week’s “maybe” was played out in Brussels as EU leaders met to work out how to respond to the first great crisis of the euro. No, this one was not primarily the Parliament in action, but it nonetheless says much about the new political Europe in which the Parliament has staked its new, greater role. Leaders scurrying to rally the currency, bankers, business, pundits following their every move, workers taking to the streets… Remind you of anything? Surely this is old fashioned “real” politics, the sort that moves markets and hits citizens where it matters – in the pocket.

Yes, it was a huge week. Huge in Parliament, and huge because it gave us a foretaste of the Europe Lisbon built.