European Diary, 1977-1981 (16 page)

Then we walked across to the old Chancellery for a luncheon of about sixty people. After lunch Schmidt made a long, rambling but quite interesting speech. He had thrown away his text at my invitation before we left his office, saying it looked much too long, and then proceeded to speak for at least twice as long as the text would have taken. However, amongst the things he said was that he and Giscard had decided that it was very desirable that I should become President of the Commission because they wanted a politician of standing who might have become Prime Minister of his
own country, and that he himself had complete faith in my ability to do a very good job in this capacity. My only trouble, he said, was that I had wanted to have twelve other potential Prime Ministers supporting me in the Commission, a very rash wish. He would never do that in his own Government. It made things very uncomfortable. It was much better to be surrounded by people who could never be Prime Ministers. It was a friendly but not very European speech, in which he said that Germany did not want to be in the front row. In reply, I said that Germany was inevitably in the front row, the question was in which direction they pushed. But the whole occasion passed off thoroughly pleasantly.

In the afternoon I saw first Frau Schlei, the rather arch Minister of Development, and then Willy Brandt, accompanied by Horst Ehmke, in the SPD headquarters. Willy was extremely friendly, very hospitably relaxed and treated me as an old friend, as indeed I treated him. We mostly talked about his projected chairmanship of the committee on the Third World. In putting this together he is doing exactly what Schmidt had described me as wanting to -assembling a group of Prime Ministers or equivalents. He thought he had got Kissinger, he preferred Heath rather than Home from England, Mendès-France from France might be very good but was a little old, Palme from Sweden would come along, etc.

Then at 5.15, flagging distinctly by this stage, an hour with Hans Apel, at the Ministry of Finance, followed by a meeting with Matthöfer, Minister for Research and Technology, in which he broadly invited me to find some way in which the British could assemble a majority to vote down the Germans and get the JET project for Culham as opposed to the Garching site. It is remarkable the mess that has been made of this. In the car from there Crispin gave me the extraordinary news that Peter Jay
¹¹⁸
had been appointed Ambassador to Washington. Dinner in the Steigenberger Hotel, presided over by Anna-Maria Renger, ex-President of the Bundestag, and a very nice woman. Back at Schloss Gymnich by about 11.15, exhausted by ten meetings on the run.

FRIDAY, 13 MAY.
Bonn and East Hendred.

10 o'clock meeting in the Bundestag with Kohl, accompanied by Narjes. Kohl, as had been my impression when I had previously met him in July 1976 in London, is a considerable man. Schmidt does not think so, but he is wrong. We exchanged views on a number of issues and found a close identity of European view with, I hope, a considerable continuing Christian Democratic commitment to the Community. In the latter part of the interview Kohl expounded why this was particularly important for Germany in view of their divided position, their historical rootlessness, all done in a mixture of practical and philosophical terms which was effective. Then to the Commission office for a pointless but not testing debriefing of the ambassadors of the Nine, and then a long press conference.

Lunch at the Redout presided over by Dohnanyi. Then to the Villa Hammerstein, the presidential residence, for a meeting with Walter Scheel.
¹¹⁹
This was impaired by the Germans having far too many people present, sitting round like crows on a branch. I had taken only Crispin, but they had at least twelve in the room. I find a large, silent audience of this sort particularly inhibiting, especially as I wished to raise points of substance with the Federal President. Scheel, however, is a nice man who has grown a lot and I think is now a major figure. He has some unrealistic ideas about the reform of the Council of Ministers, but he is generally firmly on the right side.

Plane to London, and East Hendred by just after 8.00, very glad to be back after a fairly exhausting three weeks, morale a good deal up in the last two to three days.

MONDAY, 16 MAY.
East Hendred and Brussels.

Back to Brussels by noon. I gave lunch to the Council of British Shipping, which was all right apart from the fact that my left-hand neighbour, who was otherwise an engaging companion, choked on a piece of meat and nearly died during lunch. However, he revived afterwards under the care of the
service médicale.

THURSDAY, 19 MAY.
Brussels, London and Dublin.

To London for Peter Kirk's memorial service at St Margaret's. Then with Jennifer to Dublin for our official visit. Met by Garret Fitzgerald and conducted in with, as usual in Ireland these days, a heavy security guard, endless police cars, motorbikes, screaming sirens, etc. To the Hibernian Hotel, just off St Stephen's Green. A Prime Minister's (or Taoiseach's) dinner at Iveagh House, with a big turn-up of most Irish notables, including about half the Government, the leader of the Opposition (Lynch), and various other figures. I liked Cosgrave at dinner; although a quiet and reticent man, he was nice to talk to, as was his wife, and made a good, prepared, pro-European speech after dinner, to which I responded.

FRIDAY, 20 MAY.
Dublin and London.

Thirty-minute visit to the Commission office, a rather splendid Georgian house in Merrion Square, then to the Taoiseach's office for an hour's conversation alone with him, apart from Crispin and one on his side, in which I mainly gave him a debriefing on the Summit. Again impressed by him; he listens well, is serious and takes in what is said. Following that, a large governmental meeting at Iveagh House, presided over by Garret Fitzgerald, with six other ministers. These meetings with groups of ministers are quite a strain as I have to conduct all the talk on our side and we range over a lot of subjects, whereas they have a revolving cast. After that, to a nominally but not very working lunch in the other part of Iveagh House, with Garret Fitzgerald presiding over a table of about twenty.

Then out to Phoenix Park to call on the President—Patrick Hillery, a previous Vice-President of the Commission—at the old Vice-Regal Lodge, now called Ăras an Uachtarăin. A beautiful afternoon with sparkling, very clear Dublin light, and I was much reminded of Dilke's description of a drive from there on the occasion of his only visit to Ireland at almost exactly the same time of year, ninety-two years before, when he had been struck by the view to the Wicklow mountains and the number of people riding out on ‘cars' to the strawberry gardens but all of them refusing even to acknowledge the Viceroy (Spencer, I suppose). Hillery and I
spent half the time walking in the gardens. Then back to the Dail for a call on Jack Lynch.
¹²⁰
It was the beginning of the election campaign. He was friendly and modest but gave me the impression that he had very little chance.
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After that a press conference and to the airport, again under screaming escort, for the 5.55 for London. A beautiful flight on the way back until we got to about Henley-on-Thames. A spectacular early summer evening, particularly over Monmouthshire and Herefordshire.

SATURDAY, 21 MAY.
London and Leeds Castle.

With Crispin to Leeds Castle for the Foreign Ministers' ‘Schloss Gymnich'-type meeting, which Tony Crosland had been particularly keen to arrange there, thinking that it would be a striking and agreeable place. So indeed it was. A remarkable house, or rather castle, of which I had never before had more than a distant glimpse, very well furnished and with a most unusual arrangement of views. However, the weekend was not a total success. People had come slightly too far at too great an inconvenience, despite the helicopters which had been assembled to transport them from various airports, and David Owen, with his many qualities, is not a naturally gracious host; he is not keen enough on surroundings or food or drink to enjoy providing them for others.

However, all the Nine Foreign Ministers turned up and the discussion, desultory over lunch and then for about three and a quarter hours after lunch on enlargement, was worthwhile. Towards the end we had an awkward passage about the representation of the Community at the Belgrade follow-up meetings to the Helsinki Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. We nearly got a very satisfactory agreement and then it was torn apart. It nominally turned on what the
pancarte
in front of our delegation should say, but the real issue was the independent position of the Commission as opposed to its subordination to member state governments. We had thought the French would be the most difficult but in fact the most trouble came from the Danes followed by the British. Despite the splendour of my room, I slept badly.

SUNDAY, 22 MAY.
Leeds Castle and London.

Morning session of about the same quality as the previous afternoon. Then Geoffrey Lloyd and Peter Wilson
¹²²
for a drink at about noon—some ministers were going by that time—in their capacity as trustees for the Leeds Castle Foundation, and then a lunch at which about half the Foreign Ministers were present, just before which I had a better conversation with David (Owen) than any since he has become Foreign Secretary. London at 3.30.

WEDNESDAY, 25 MAY.
Brussels.

Six and a half hours of Commission meetings, the afternoon almost entirely taken up with the first major bite at the budget. Tugendhat definitely performing well; also an extremely skilful performance by Davignon, who managed to get away with a certain amount of murder in his field by (1) arguing his individual case well and effectively, and (2) being helpful to everybody else, particularly me, on all other issues. Budget discussions in the Commission are remarkably reminiscent of a public expenditure exercise in the British Cabinet.

THURSDAY, 26 MAY.
Brussels.

Commission from 9.30 to 1.05, by the end of which, after ten hours on two days, we had completed the budget. There was difficulty during the morning, but only about overseas representation, a rather silly issue, in which Cheysson and Haferkamp (through his representative; he, typically, was not present) were both over-demanding. We settled the Regional Fund fairly quickly at 750 million units of account, and then had a difficult issue on the Social Fund at the end, where we weren't prepared to allow very much increase in the credit voted, although owing to the speed-up of payments there would be a very considerable increase in operations on the ground. Vredeling, discontented and unhappy, voted sullenly against, but did not actually throw a tremendous scene, and clearly was in no resignation mood. Ortoli intervened rather helpfully and persuasively at the end, urging him to accept the decision and make the best he could of it, which I think he is doing.

Then to lunch with the Trilateral Commission
¹²³
who were having an all-day meeting in Brussels with sessions with various Commissioners. I spoke and answered questions for an hour.

Back to the Berlaymont to see Giolitti, who was very pleased with the outcome in the morning and has really got much better and crisper and came with two very sensible further points about national quotas within the Fund and the proportion which should be quota-free. Rue de Praetère dinner party for Brunners, Ersbølls (Danish Permanent Representative), Ronald Mcintosh
¹²⁴
and Tickells. Mrs Brunner, who is General Speidel's daughter, was very interesting at dinner. I also had a good talk with Ersbøll afterwards, whom I like, and found very sensible on a broad range of European issues.

FRIDAY, 27 MAY.
Brussels and Sussex.

Plane to Gatwick and drove with Jennifer to the Bonham Carters
¹²⁵
at Ripe.

Before dinner I drove with Leslie and Jennifer up to Firle Beacon on a most memorable evening,
¹²⁶
not outstandingly clear in the far distance, but with the countryside a gleaming green, and a perfect light over Newhaven Harbour and in the other direction up the valley of the Ouse towards Lewes and the Weald.

SUNDAY, 29 MAY.
Sussex and Paris.

Weather still perfect and I felt a good deal less exhausted than for the past ten days. Early morning expedition to Lewes for the newspapers and back over Glyndebourne. Tennis with the Annans
¹²⁷
who came to lunch. Spent the afternoon in the garden before departing at 7.00 for Paris and the CIEC North/South Conference. I was met by Michael Jenkins and drove to the Ritz Hotel.

MONDAY, 30 MAY.
Paris.

Drove on a perfect morning through the empty streets of Paris—it being a public holiday—with an unnecessary motorcycle escort to the conference in the old Hotel Majestic (British peace treaty negotiating HQ in 1919, Gestapo HQ from 1940, now the Palais Kléber).

First a meeting with Cyrus Vance, who had not moved much on most of the issues of substance—the Common Fund, Special Action,
¹²⁸
Official Development Aid, etc., though he was I think anxious to be reasonably forthcoming within the limitations of the American Treasury view. But he had done a sudden switch on the question of a possible continuation of CIEC. In response, apparently, to some suggestion of the Saudis (who would give in return consultation on oil prices) Vance was prepared to contemplate this and to say so in his opening speech.

This led immediately, just before the opening of the conference itself, to a-rather tetchy row between him and David Owen, who was strongly opposed to the idea. David was apparently in a generally bad temper, so the Foreign Office officials said, although this did not show itself in his relations with me during the week. However, it was silly of him to have this rather unnecessary row with Vance for I managed immediately afterwards (and fairly easily) to get the most objected-to passage out of Vance's speech. It is also a pity he has got on such generally bad terms with the Foreign Office.