The Hallstein Commission is the European Commission that held office from 7 January 1958 to 30 June 1967. Its president was Walter Hallstein and held two separate mandates.
It was the first commission on the European Economic Community and held its first formal meeting on 16 January 1958 at the Château of Val-Duchesse.[1] It was succeeded by the Rey Commission. It served two terms and had 9 members (two each from France, Italy and Germany, one each from Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands).[2] It began work on the European single market and the Common Agricultural Policy. [3] The commission enjoyed a number of successes, such as the cereal prices accord which it managed to achieve in the wake of de Gaulle's veto of Britain's membership. De Gaulle was a major opponent to the commission, and proposals such as the cereal prices accord were designed to bind France closer to the EEC to make it harder to break it up. Its work gained it esteem and prestige not only from the member states, but from outside the community when the commission made its debut at the Kennedy Round.[4]
Agricultural proposals
In 1965 president Hallstein put forward the commission's proposals for financing the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The proposals would have allowed the community to develop its own financial resources, independently of the states, and given more budgetary powers to parliament. Furthermore, though, it applied the majority voting into the council, which the government of France stated it could not agree to.[5] Hallstein knew of the risky nature of the proposals and was unusually active in drafting them (they would normally have been drafted by the agriculture commissioner). The tone of internal deliberations at the time also show the institution was aware of what they would cause and some commissioners (notably both the French commissioners) were opposing the plans. However, they were also seen as vital for the commission's long-term goals.[4]
The legislation would increase not only the commission's powers, but also the parliament's in an attempt to build a supranational structure and be rid of the power of veto. Because of this president Hallstein won support from the parliament who had long been campaigning for more powers. Indeed, Hallstein played to the parliament by presenting his policy to the Parliament on 24 March, a week before he presented them to the council. By this he associated himself with the Parliament's cause and demonstrated how he thought the community ought to be run, in the hopes of generating a wave of pro-Europeanism big enough to get past the objections of member states. However, in this it proved that, despite its past successes, Hallstein was overconfident in his risky proposals.[4] When Hallstein put forward his proposals, the council was already troubled.[4] Then-French President, Charles de Gaulle, was sceptical of the rising supranational power of the commission and accused Hallstein of acting as if he were a head of state. France was particularly concerned about protecting the CAP as it was only accepted by the other states after difficult negotiations and under a majority system it may be challenged by the other members.[5]
Empty chair crisis
The commission was blamed for the empty chair crisis
This, as well as similar differences between France and the commission, were exacerbated when France took on the presidency,[5] thereby losing the normal system of mediation. Furthermore, the Commission became marginalised as the debate became one between France and the other members, making the council the centre of debate. Thus any chance of using the expertise of the commission to come up with proposals was lost.[4] Finally on 30 June 1965 Paris recalled its representative in Brussels stating it would not take its seat in the council until it had its way. This "empty chair crisis" (French: Crise de la chaise vide) was the first time that the operation of the EEC had failed because of a member state[5] and it exposed failures in the council's workings.[4]
Paris continued its policy for six months until the impact upon its economy forced it back into negotiations. Meetings were held in Luxembourg during January 1966, where an agreement was reached. Under the "Luxembourg compromise" a member could veto a decision that it believed would affect its national interests – but it did not detail what kind of national interests or how to resolve a dispute. However, since then it had been used so often it became a veto making unanimity in the council the norm and was removed under the Single European Act.[6] After the crisis, the commission became a scapegoat for the council, with Hallstein being the only person to lose his job over what happened when the council refused to renew his term, despite being the most 'dynamic' leader until Jacques Delors.[4]
First college
The first college served from 1 January 1958 to 9 January 1962.
Dumoulin, Michel (2007). The European Commission, 1958-72: history and memories. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. ISBN978-92-79-05494-5.
Groeben, Hans von der (1998). "Walter Hallstein as President of the Commission". In Loth, Wilfried; Wallace, William; Wessels, Wolfgang (eds.). Walter Hallstein: The Forgotten European?. Forewords by Jacques Delors, Sir Edward Heath, and Helmut Kohl; translated from the German by Bryan Ruppert. New York: St. Martin's Press. pp.95–108. ISBN978-0-312-21293-3.
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The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organization that aimed to bring about economic integration among its member states. It was created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957. Upon the formation of the European Union in 1993, the EEC was incorporated into the EU and renamed the European Community (EC). In 2009, the EC formally ceased to exist and its institutions were directly absorbed by the EU. This made the Union the formal successor institution of the Community.
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Walter Hallstein was a German academic, diplomat and statesman who was the first President of the Commission of the European Economic Community and one of the founding fathers of the European Union.
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The Luxembourg Compromise was an agreement reached in January 1966 to resolve the "Empty Chair Crisis" which had caused a stalemate within European Economic Community (EEC).
The Rey Commission is the European Commission that held office from 2 July 1967 to 30 June 1970. Its president was Jean Rey.
Robert Marjolin was a French economist and politician involved in the formation of the European Economic Community.
Hans von der Groeben was a German diplomat, lawyer and journalist and member of the European Commission.
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The history of the European Communities between 1958 and 1972 saw the early development of the European Communities. The European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) had just been joined by the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) and the European Economic Community (EEC), the latter of which soon became the most important. In 1967 the EEC's institutions took over the other two with the EEC's Commission holding its first terms under Hallstein and Rey.
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This is a timeline of European Union history and its previous development.
European Union (EU) concepts, acronyms, and jargon are a terminology set that has developed as a form of shorthand, to quickly express a (formal) EU process, an (informal) institutional working practice, or an EU body, function or decision, and which is commonly understood among EU officials or external people who regularly deal with EU institutions.
The Fouchet Plan was an unsuccessful plan written by Christian Fouchet, France's ambassador to Denmark, and proposed by French President Charles de Gaulle in 1961 as part of de Gaulle's grand design for Europe at the time. The plan included a three-power directorate, consisting of France, Britain and the United States. The idea was to form a new 'Union of States', an intergovernmental alternative to the European Communities that had been created a few years prior. De Gaulle feared a loss of French national influence in the Communities, which were becoming increasingly supranational so the plan was an attempt to keep the balance of power in France's favor. The success of the European Communities and the lack of enthusiasm of other states for the idea stopped the implementation of the Fouchet Plan.
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