Some interpretations given of the Santer commission ‘s resignation were that the Commission was unable to manage the crisis, and especially because of its “poor communication” skills. On the one hand, this paper shows that this interpretation is wrong. The problem of this crisis is not a communication problem, but a legitimisation problem. And this legitimisation problem is due to a more general transformation of the European political game, which led to a dynamic of disintegration of its allies. But on the other hand, one could say that the interpretation of poor communication is nevertheless interesting in a very particular meaning. Considering these changes, one can think that the European Commission Communication has been wrong-footed by the politicisation of the European Institutions which was in process in this crisis. In other word, this crisis led us to think to the link between legitimisation and construction of political practices in the EU institutions.