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Preparing for Brussels: Priorities, Personalities, and Portfolios

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Roy Jenkins and the European Commission Presidency, 1976 –1980

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Abstract

This chapter looks at the period immediately before Jenkins’ arrival in Brussels. It explores the circumstances that led to his being offered the post, highlighting the role of Helmut Schmidt and Valéry Giscard d’Estaing in particular. Next the chapter examines the manner in which the president-elect used the summer, autumn, and early winter of 1976 to prepare himself for the Commission presidency, and the advice he received during these months. Also discussed are Jenkins’ energetic but only partially successful efforts to influence the appointments to his Commission. The chapter concludes with a look at the delicate allocation of jobs to the incoming Commissioners in the course of the so-called ‘night of the long knives’.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    UKNA, PREM 16 384, P. J. Weston to Lord Bridges, 25 October 1974.

  2. 2.

    Daniel Furby and N. Piers Ludlow, ‘Christopher Soames, 1968–1972’, in The Paris Embassy: British Ambassadors and Anglo-French Relations, 1944–79, ed. John W. Young and Rogelia Pastor-Castro (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), 138–61.

  3. 3.

    Marie Julie Chenard, ‘The European Community’s Opening to the People’s Republic of China, 1969–1979: Internal Decision-Making on External Relations’ (PhD, London School of Economics, 2012).

  4. 4.

    Interview with David Hannay, 14 August 2011, available at http://archives.eui.eu/en/oral_history/INT172. See also David Hannay, Britain’s Quest for a Role: A Diplomatic Memoir from Europe to the UN (London: I. B. Tauris, 2013).

  5. 5.

    UKNA, PREM 16 384, Robert Armstrong minute, 28 October 1974.

  6. 6.

    Stephen Wall, The Official History of Britain and the European Community, vol. 2: From Rejection to Referendum, 1963–1975 (Abingdon: Routledge, 2012), 511–90.

  7. 7.

    UKNA, PREM 16 384, Acland to Butler, 1 November 1974. The British government actually wanted Ortoli to be renewed for a single year only, but this would have been an administrative nightmare, liable either to deprive all of the other Commissioners of their fourth year in Brussels, or to allow the nomination of the president to get out of synch with the rest of his team. It is thus unsurprising that the UK view did not prevail.

  8. 8.

    UKNA, PREM 16 384, Wright to Ferguson, 6 November 1975.

  9. 9.

    Akten zur Auswärtigen Politik der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (henceforward AAPD) 1975, volume 1, document 10. Giscard’s mind may have been encouraged to move in this direction by a conversation with Nicholas Henderson, the new British ambassador in Paris. Nicholas Henderson, Mandarin: The Diaries of an Ambassador, 1969–1982 (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1994), 98.

  10. 10.

    AAPD 1975, vol. 1, document 39.

  11. 11.

    Roy Jenkins, European Diary, 1977–1981 (London: Collins, 1989), 3.

  12. 12.

    For a generally favourable assessment of the Ortoli presidency, see Laurence Badel and Eric Bussière, François-Xavier Ortoli: L’Europe, Quel Numéro de Téléphone? (Paris: Descartes & Cie, 2011), 119–66.

  13. 13.

    AAPD 1975, vol. 1, document 39.

  14. 14.

    The Germans had earlier suggested Jenkins as a candidate for the post of managing director of the International Monetary Fund, an offer that Jenkins had turned down. The Guardian, 21 May 1973.

  15. 15.

    Emmanuel Mourlon-Druol, ‘Filling the EEC Leadership Vacuum? The Creation of the European Council in 1974’, Cold War History 10, no. 3 (August 2010): 315–39.

  16. 16.

    Jenkins, European Diary, 1977–1981, 4.

  17. 17.

    Ibid., 5.

  18. 18.

    The Financial Times, 3 April 1976; Presidency Conclusions, Brussels European Council, 12–13 July 1976, available at http://www.european-council.europa.eu/media/849707/bruxelles_july_1976__eng_.pdf (accessed 27 January 2014).

  19. 19.

    Badel and Bussière, François-Xavier Ortoli, 119.

  20. 20.

    ‘European Union. Report by Mr Leo Tindemans, Prime Minister of Belgium, to the European Council’, Bulletin of the European Communities, Supplement 1/76.

  21. 21.

    In Jenkins’ time all of the Commissioners were men. Jenkins did slightly mischievously suggest to Giscard that he live up to his rhetoric and appoint a female Commissioner, but while France would eventually be one of the first two countries to appoint a woman to the European Commission, this would not happen until François Mitterrand nominated Christiane Scrivener in 1989. Vasso Papandreou became the Greek member of the second Delors Commission at exactly the same time. TP, Box 1, folder on ‘France’, record of Mr Jenkins’ talk with President Giscard d’Estaing, 28 October 1976.

  22. 22.

    Roy Jenkins, A Life at the Centre (London: Macmillan, 1991), 446–8; Jenkins, European Diary, 1977–1981, xx–xxii.

  23. 23.

    His official position was attached to the Secretariat General.

  24. 24.

    Interview with David Marquand, 7 June 2011.

  25. 25.

    Jenkins, European Diary, 1977–1981, 2.

  26. 26.

    Roy Jenkins speech to EP, 11 January 1977, available at http://aei.pitt.edu/10997/

  27. 27.

    Jenkins, European Diary, 1977–1981, 8.

  28. 28.

    Gérard Bossuat, Émile Noël, premier secrétaire général de la Commission européenne (Brussels: Bruylant, 2011); Hussein Kassim, ‘The Secretariat General of the European Commission: A Singular Institution’, in Politics and the European Commission, ed. Andy Smith (Abingdon: Routledge, 2004), 47–66.

  29. 29.

    Bossuat, Émile Noël, premier secrétaire général de la Commission européenne, 171–4.

  30. 30.

    Tickell papers, All Souls College, Oxford (henceforward TP), Box 1, folder on ‘Brussels visits’, record of Tickell–Noël meeting, 27 September 1976; Box 1, folder on ‘Reform of the Commission’, Phillips note ‘My discussions in Brussels’, 27– 28 July 1976 and Phillips to Jenkins, ‘Meeting with Noël’, 7 October 1976.

  31. 31.

    Interview with Christopher Audland, 8 August 2010, available at http://archives.eui.eu/en/oral_history/INT100

  32. 32.

    See, for example, TP, Box 1, folder on ‘Commission Working Methods’, Audland to Tickell, 20 October 1976.

  33. 33.

    TP, Box 1, folder on ‘Reform of the Commission’, Soames to Jenkins, 14 July 1976; folder on ‘Portfolios of the Commissioners’, Jenkins–Soames meeting, 2 August 1976.

  34. 34.

    TP, Box 1, folder on ‘Portfolios of the Commissioners’, M. Jenkins’ note, ‘The Commission’, 29 April 1976, and M. Jenkins’ note, ‘Priorities for the President Designate’, undated.

  35. 35.

    TP, Box 1, folder on ‘Reform of the Commission’, Hannay to Jenkins, 14 May 1976.

  36. 36.

    TP, Box 1, folder on ‘Reform of the Commission’, M. Jenkins to Phillips, 29 July 1976.

  37. 37.

    Ibid., enclosures with Soames to Jenkins, 14 July 1976.

  38. 38.

    TP, Box 1, folder on ‘Portfolios of the Commission’, M. Jenkins to Tickell, 15 November 1972 plus attachments.

  39. 39.

    TP, Box 1, folder on ‘Reform of the Commission’, Morgan to Jenkins, 27 July 1976.

  40. 40.

    See, for example, ibid., Denman to Jenkins, ‘The Presidency of the Commission 1977–80. Myths and Realities’, 15 September 1976.

  41. 41.

    Jenkins, European Diary, 1977–1981, 8.

  42. 42.

    Ibid., 178.

  43. 43.

    TP, Box 1, folder on ‘Reform of the Commission’, Phillips note ‘My discussions in Brussels’, 27–28 July 1976; folder on ‘Portfolios of the Commission’, C. McMahon to Jenkins, 30 June 1976.

  44. 44.

    TP, Box 1, folder on ‘Germany—Visits’, note on Mr Jenkins’ discussion with the Federal German Chancellor, 26 May 1976.

  45. 45.

    Jenkins, European Diary, 1977–1981, 8.

  46. 46.

    TP, folder on ‘FCO’, Tickell to Jenkins, 25 October 1976.

  47. 47.

    UKNA, CAB 164 1347, Frank Cooper to Kenneth Christofas, 25 July 1972, and ‘Organisation of the European Commission’, note by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, September 1972.

  48. 48.

    For details see N. Piers Ludlow, ‘The British Are Coming: The Arrival and Impact of the First Cohorts of British Fonctionnaires in the European Commission’, in Teilungen überwinden. Europäische und Internationale Geschichte im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. Festschrift für Wilfried Loth, ed. Michaela Bachem-Rehm, Claudia Hiepel, and Henning Türk (Munich: Oldenbourg, 2014).

  49. 49.

    UKNA, CAB 164 1347, Christofas to Hunt, 2 November 1972.

  50. 50.

    Wall, Official History, vol. 2, 511–90.

  51. 51.

    TP, Box 1, folder on ‘Reform of the Commission’, Soames to Jenkins, 14 July 1976.

  52. 52.

    The idea was discussed with Schmidt, but there was agreement that it was unlikely to be realistic in the short term. TP, Box 1, folder on ‘Germany—Visits’, note on Mr Jenkins’ discussion with the Federal German Chancellor, 26 May 1976.

  53. 53.

    TP, Box 1, folder on ‘Reform of the Commission’, folder on ‘Portfolios of the Commissioners’, M. Jenkins’ note, ‘The Commission’, 29 April 1976, and M. Jenkins’ note, ‘Priorities for the President Designate’, undated.

  54. 54.

    TP, Box 1, folder on ‘Reform of the Commission’, folder on ‘Portfolios of the Commissioners’, M. Jenkins’ note, ‘The Commission’, 29 April 1976, and M. Jenkins’ note, ‘Priorities for the President Designate’, undated.

  55. 55.

    Ibid.

  56. 56.

    Ibid.

  57. 57.

    Ibid.

  58. 58.

    TP, Box 1, folder on ‘Reform of the Commission’, M. Jenkins to Phillips, 29 July 1976.

  59. 59.

    TP, Box 1, folder on ‘Reform of the Commission’, M. Jenkins to Tickell, 27 September 1976.

  60. 60.

    Ibid., Tickell to Denman, 1 October 1976.

  61. 61.

    Archives Nationales, Pierrefitte, Paris (henceforward AN), Giscard papers, AG/5(3)/911, Subfolder: Conseilleur Diplomatique. Conseil européen de La Haye (29–30 novembre 1976), Note pour le Président, ‘a.s. Document anglais sur la Commission’, 20 November 1976.

  62. 62.

    European Commission Historical Archives, Brussels (henceforward ECHA), SEC (77) 6, 3 January 1977.

  63. 63.

    Eirini Karamouzi, Greece, the EEC and the Cold War, 1974–79, pp. 45–49 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014).

  64. 64.

    TP, Box 1, folder on ‘Commission Working Methods’, Noël to Tickell, 19 November 1976.

  65. 65.

    N. Piers Ludlow, Dealing with Britain: The Six and the First UK Application to the EEC, Cambridge Studies in International Relations 56 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 164–5.

  66. 66.

    His was the first name Schmidt came up with for instance. TP, Box 1, folder on ‘Germany—Visits’, note on Mr Jenkins’ discussion with the Federal German Chancellor, 26 May 1976.

  67. 67.

    Council of Ministers Archives, Brussels (henceforward CMA), C/112/67, Procès verbal de la conférence des gouvernements, 5 June 1967.

  68. 68.

    TP, folder on ‘Rome’, Colombo to Jenkins, 29 September 1976.

  69. 69.

    John Campbell, Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life (London: Jonathan Cape, 2014), 478.

  70. 70.

    TP, File 16, ‘Meetings and Conversations, 1976–1977’, record of a conversation between Mr Jenkins and Chancellor Schmidt, 15 November 1976.

  71. 71.

    TP, Box 1, folder on ‘Visit to Dublin on September 23, 1976’, discussion between Mr Jenkins and the Taoiseach, 24 September 1976.

  72. 72.

    TP, Box 1, folder on ‘Netherlands. Visits to the Hague, 16–17 September 1976’, various documents.

  73. 73.

    TP, File 16, ‘Meetings and Conversations, 1976–1977’, record of a conversation between Mr Jenkins and Chancellor Schmidt, 15 November 1976; for Jenkins’ and Schmidt’s earlier agreement that neither of the German incumbents was very high quality, see ibid., Box 1, folder on ‘Germany—Visits’, note on Mr Jenkins’ discussion with the Federal German Chancellor, 26 May 1976. See also Jenkins, European Diary, 1977–1981, 11–12.

  74. 74.

    Burke’s still smouldering resentment at his treatment was apparent in my interview with him. Interview with Richard Burke, 10 May 2012, available at http://archives.eui.eu/en/oral_history/INT116

  75. 75.

    Both had featured in Jenkins’ list of star performers in the current Commission during Jenkins conversation with Schmidt in May. TP, Box 1, folder on ‘Germany—Visits’, note on Mr Jenkins’ discussion with the Federal German Chancellor, 26 May 1976.

  76. 76.

    Ibid. Hannay also singled out Gundelach for particular praise. Interview with Hannay, 14 July 2011, available at http://archives.eui.eu/en/oral_history/INT172

  77. 77.

    TP, Box 1, folder on ‘Rome’, multiple documents. For Italy’s long-standing difficulty in persuading high-calibre politicians to accept Brussels posts, see Antonio Varsori, ‘L’Italia a Bruxelles: i membri italiani della Commissione’, in L’Italia nella construzione europea: Un bilancio storico (1957–2007), ed. Piero Craveri and Antonio Varsori (Milan: Franco Angeli, 2009).

  78. 78.

    TP, Box 1, folder on ‘Brussels visits’, various documents.

  79. 79.

    Ibid., folder on ‘Portfolios of the Commissioners’, Tickell handwritten minute on M. Jenkins to Tickell, ‘Designation of the New Commission’, 10 November 1976.

  80. 80.

    The members of the first Delors Commission met, for instance, at the abbaye de Royaumont in December 1984. See Jacques Delors, Mémoires (Paris: Plon, 2004), 194.

  81. 81.

    Emile Noël papers, Historical Archives of the European Union, Florence (henceforward ENP), EN-608, Phillips to Noël, 5 January 1977.

  82. 82.

    Financial Times, ‘Murder at Ditchley’, 24 December 1976.

  83. 83.

    The German government’s expectation that it would be given one if not two key portfolios in the new Commission, despite defying Jenkins’ preferences in terms of who it nominated, is very clear from Schmidt’s papers. Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Bonn, Helmut Schmidt papers (henceforward HSP), File 7236, Zeller Brief, Betr. Besuch des designierten Präsidenten der Kommission der Europäischen Gemeinschaften, Roy Jenkins (1/2 November 1976).

  84. 84.

    TP, File 16, ‘Meetings and Conversations, 1976–1977’, Tickell to Jenkins, 25 November 1976.

  85. 85.

    Ibid., Tickell to Jenkins, 3 December 1976.

  86. 86.

    Jenkins, European Diary, 1977–1981, 661–8. A longer version of Jenkins’ own account of the night of the long knives was shown to me by kind permission of Lady Jenkins and will soon be available amongst the Jenkins papers in the Bodleian Library Oxford. Few of the details omitted from the published version were of great significance, however.

  87. 87.

    Financial Times, 8 January 1981.

  88. 88.

    Jenkins, European Diary, 1977–1981, 666–8.

  89. 89.

    Jenkins would describe him as ‘the best member of my Commission’, ibid., xvi.

  90. 90.

    TP, Box 1, folder on ‘Denmark’, various documents.

  91. 91.

    TP, Box 1, folder on ‘France’, record of Mr Jenkins’ talk with President Giscard d’Estaing, 28 October 1976.

  92. 92.

    Jenkins’ programme speech to the EP, 8 February 1977, available at http://aei.pitt.edu/10999/

  93. 93.

    TP, Box 1, folder on ‘Ditchley’, handwritten and undated speaking notes.

  94. 94.

    Delors, Mémoires, 182–92.

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    N. Piers Ludlow

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Ludlow, N.P. (2016). Preparing for Brussels: Priorities, Personalities, and Portfolios. In: Roy Jenkins and the European Commission Presidency, 1976 –1980. Security, Conflict and Cooperation in the Contemporary World. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-51530-8_3

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