European Diary, 1977-1981 (98 page)

After lunch there were the formal proceedings in the Commission room and I did not get back to bilateral interviews until about 5.30 p.m. The exact subsequent series of interviews is difficult to recall. They were in any event supplemented by Crispin's activities on the
Chefs de Cabinet
net. I think I saw at least once all the Commissioners except Cheysson and Davignon, whose positions were already fixed without difficulty, most of them twice, and some of them three times. The essential development of events was as follows. First we got news that Brunner had cracked. The German Government declined to intervene, leaving it to be settled in the Commission, and that left him no effective position. Later that evening I firmly offered him Energy, which he already knew was in the wind, and which he accepted.

The Natali position began to sort itself out. He saw me during the early evening and put in a strong bid for a mixed bag of Enlargement, plus Direct Elections, plus the Budget. Crispin, however, did some negotiations with him later in the evening, with the outcome that provided Environment was added to his list he would be prepared to forgo the Budget. The Natali settlement had the effect of unlocking the difficulty into which I was getting with Tugendhat. I had an interview with him before dinner, in which I told him firmly that it was his duty to accept Personnel, which he did not want, but which was important, and, secondly, the group of ‘human face' portfolios. This interview led to a long argument and he went away from it unhappy. But once the Budget had been clawed back from Natali the difficulty became much less because the Budget, DG15 (Financial Institutions) and Personnel made a reasonably satisfactory though rather mixed portfolio for him. I sent for him immediately after dinner, told him this, and made him reasonably satisfied.

It therefore looked by about 10.30 p.m. as though we had a fairly complete solution before us, subject only to the fact that there was very little except a ragbag left for Burke, the Irish Commissioner. I saw him a couple of times in the late evening and offered him Transport plus Consumer Affairs, with a possibility of something else. He was clearly unhappy, but since I am afraid I thought that as he was not very good and as somebody was bound to be the loser
(there just are not enough proper jobs for thirteen Commissioners), I did not see that there was a great deal more I could do.

However, between 10.30 p.m. and 1.30 a.m., when we eventually resumed, several other last-minute difficulties came up: a frontier dispute between Ortoli and Giolitti which took more resolving than I had hoped; and long procrastination from Vouël about the exact definition of his portfolio. In addition, Crispin was constantly reporting that Burke was in a black mood, was going round full of gloom and stirring up a certain amount of trouble; I should no doubt have reacted to this more quickly. However, with a list of thirteen portfolios, twelve of which at least had been agreed, I was able to re-summon the Commission at 1.30, to read out the list of twelve, and to get them accepted without undue difficulties, though certain minor frontier disputes were left unresolved. By 2.15 or 2.30 a.m. at the very latest we had all that agreed and were nearly ready to meet the press and announce our decisions. But we then had the great Burke saga, which lasted with a number of adjournments until 5.30 in the morning. He announced himself unable to accept the decision, conducting himself, in very difficult circumstances, with a certain rigid dignity, but also being slow and suspicious. His complaint that he was short of adequate responsibilities had some justification and for that reason attracted some sympathy.

In a series of adjournments we endeavoured to find whether there were some assuagements which we could give him, and several other Commissioners were forthcoming. Natali, Davignon, Tugendhat and Brunner were all persuaded to accept minor incursions to try to help him. I suggested that he should have special responsibility for relations with the Parliament. I had been against devolving this, but it seemed to me a reasonable price to pay to avoid having decisions taken by vote with no unanimity. As a result, after about the third adjournment, all of these taking place within the room, I was able to say that we were offering him a choice between nine different responsibilities. I was not suggesting he should take them all, but he could take any combination of three or four of them, which I thought was a wholly reasonable offer.

At that stage sympathy had swung strongly to the side of the majority position and against him. Nonetheless there was a great reluctance to go to a voted decision. Therefore, at about 4.40, I
decided as a last attempt to say that we would have a further and last adjournment and on this occasion we would leave the room. My motive was partly that I wanted a drink; but secondly and more importantly it would get Burke out of the room and give him an opportunity to consult with his
cabinet
and perhaps escape from the
contra mundem
mood into which he had fallen. By a great good chance this worked; he came back and said that he would accept Transport, Consumer Affairs, Relations with Parliament, and Taxation. As a result of all this we were able to reach an agreed, unanimous, though painfully arrived at, solution by just before 5.30 in the morning.

Although the process had taken a long time—a somewhat longer time than four years previously when the Ortoli Commission was set up—it was not at all bad by earlier standards. At the beginning of the Malfatti Commission in 1971, the process had been accomplished only after about twenty votes, and at the beginning of the Jean Rey Commission, in 1967, the whole process had taken two weeks—and an extremely wearing and unproductive two weeks it had been.

Presidents, Ambassadors, Governments

The Presidents of the European Parliament

Georges Spénale (French Socialist)
until July 1977, then
Emilio Colombo (Italian Christian Democrat)
until July 1979, then
Simone Veil (French Liberal, or UDF, i.e. Giscardian)

The Presidents of the European Court

Hans Kutscher (German)
until October 1980, then

Josse Mertens de Wilmars (Belgian)

Ambassadors or Permanent Representatives of the Member States
who collectively formed COREPER (Comitédes Représentants Permanents)

The Other Ambassadors to the Community most frequently dealt with

Most Western countries had three ambassadors in Brussels: one to the European Community, one to NATO, and one to the Kingdom of Belgium. This may explain occasional apparent confusion.

Governments of the Member States

BELGIUM

DENMARK

FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY

FRANCE

IRELAND

ITALY

LUXEMBOURG

NETHERLANDS

UNITED KINGDOM

The presidency of the Council of Ministers (and hence of the European Council, Committee of Permanent Representatives or
Ambassadors, and any other meeting or representatives of Community governments) rotated on a six-monthly basis. During my presidency of the Commission the Council presidencies were as follows: