The European Commission 1973-86 : history and memories of an institution.
Date: 2014-08-01
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EU Member State, EU institution, EU policy, European Commission, European Commissioner, historical account, history of Europe, public awareness campaign

On 29 May 1986, the European flag 
was raised for the first time outside 
the Berlaymont — the Commission’s 
headquarters in Brussels — at a 
ceremony to celebrate its official 
adoption by the Community institutions. 
The adoption of the European flag, 
symbol of the union of the peoples of 
Europe, was the embodiment of the 
political and institutional advances of 
the time.

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION
1973–86

HISTORY AND MEMORIES   
OF AN INSTITUTION

A NEW CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION

46

The European Commission 1973–86 — History and Memories of an Institution

Chapter 1 — The Commission’s organisation, office locations and staff  

47

XI — Environment, 
Consumer Protection 
and Nuclear Safety
Clinton Davis, Stanley (UK)
HoC: Meadows, Graham

XII — Science, Research 
and Development
(VP) Narjes, Karl-Heinz (DE)
HoC: von Moltke, Heinrich

DG: Fasella, Paolo

XIII — Information Market 
and Innovation
(up to 1986)

Telecommunications, 
Information Industries 
and Innovation
Narjes, Karl-Heinz (DE)
HoC: von Moltke, Heinrich

DG: Appleyard, Raymond (to 1986)

then Carpentier, Michel

Task force: Information and Telecommunications
Technologies
DG: Carpentier, Michel

XIV — Fisheries
(VP) Andriessen, Frans (NL)
HoC:  Trojan, Carlo

Cardoso e Cunha, 
António José Baptista (PT)
HoC: Cabral da Fonseca, Eurico Luís

DG:  Gallagher, Eamonn

XV — Financial 
Institutions and Taxation
(up to 1986)

Financial Institutions 
and Company Law

(VP) Cockﬁ eld, Arthur (UK)
HoC:  Fortescue, Adrian

DG: Henriksen, Ole Bus (until 1986)

Fitchew, Geoﬀ rey

Varﬁ s, Grigoris (EL)
for consumer protection
(from 1986)
HoC: Mitsos, Achilleas

DG: Fairclough, Anthony John 

(from 1986)

XVI — Regional Policy
Varﬁ s, Grigoris (EL)
HoC:  Mitsos, Achilleas

Pfeiﬀ er, 
Alois (DE)
HoC: Dibelius, Otto

DG: Mathijsen, Pierre (1985–86)

Landaburu, Eneko (from 1986)

XVII — Energy
Mosar, Nicolas (LU)
HoC:  Peters, John (1985–86)

Thurmes, Fernand (from 1986)

DG:  Audland, Christopher 

(1985–86)

XVIII — Credit 
and Investments
Pfeiﬀ er, Alois (DE)
HoC: Dibelius, Otto

Matutes, Abel (ES)
HoC: Prat y Coll, Juan

DG: Cioﬃ  , Enrico

XIX — Budgets
(VP) Christophersen, Henning 
(DK)
HoC: Bladbjerg, Bjarne

DG:  Strasser, Daniel (1985–86)
  Morel, Jean-Claude (from 1986)

XX — Financial Control
(VP) Christophersen, Henning 
(DK)
HoC: Bladbjerg, Bjarne

DG:  Facini, Carlo

Secretary-General
Noël, Émile (FR)

XXI — Customs Union 
and Indirect Taxation
(from 1986)

(VP) Cockﬁ eld, Arthur (UK)
HoC: Fortescue, Adrian

DG:  Rui Vilar, Emilio

XXII — Coordination of 
Structural Instruments
(from 1986)

Varﬁ s, Grigoris (EL)
HoC: Barlebo-Larsen, Kaj

DG:  Facini, Carlo

Legal Service
Commissioner: Delors, Jacques
Director-General: Ehlermann, Claus-Dieter

Spokesman’s Service
Commissioner: Delors, Jacques
Spokesman: Paemen, Hugo

Joint Interpreting and Conference Service
Commissioner: Delors, Jacques
Director: Van Hoof, Renée

Statistical Oﬃ  ce
Commissioner: Pfeiﬀ er, Alois
Director-General: Ronchetti, Silvio

Customs Union Service (up to 1986)
Commissioner: Cockﬁ eld, Arthur
Director: Klein, Friedrich

Joint Research Centre
Commisioner: Narjes, Karl-Heinz
Director-General: Dinkespiler, Jean-Albert (1985–86), 
then Contzen, Jean-Pierre (from 1986)

Euratom Supply Agency
Commissioner: Mosar, Nicolas
Director-General: von Klitzing, Georg

Oﬃ  ce for Oﬃ  cial Publications 
of the European Communities
Commissioner: Mosar, Nicolas
Director: Verheyden, Walter

Part Two 
Administrative culture 
and methods

1985–86

I — External Relations
De Clercq, Willy (BE)
HoC: Schaub, Alexander

Cheysson, Claude (FR)
for Mediterranean policy 
and North–South relations

HoC: Soubestre, Philippe

(VP) Natali, Lorenzo (IT)
for enlargement
HoC: Pensa, Paolo

DG: Fielding, Leslie

II — Economic 
and Financial Aﬀ airs
Pfeiﬀ er, Alois (DE)
HoC: Dibelius, Otto

DG: Russo, Massimo

III — Internal Market 
and Industrial Aﬀ airs
(VP) Narjes, Karl-Heinz (DE)
for industrial aﬀ airs and information 
technology

HoC:  von Moltke, 
Heinrich

(VP) Cockﬁ eld, Arthur (UK)
for the internal market

HoC: Fortescue, Adrian

IV — Competition
Sutherland, Peter (IE)
HoC: O’Toole, Richard

DG: Caspari, Manfred

V — Employment, Social 
Aﬀ airs and Education
Pfeiﬀ er, Alois (DE)
for employment
HoC: Dibelius, Otto

Sutherland, 
Peter (IE)
for social aﬀ airs 
and education
HoC: O’Toole, Richard

(VP) Marín, 
Manuel (ES)
HoC: Gómez-Reino Lecoq, Santiago

DG: Degimbe, Jean

Matutes, Abel (ES)
for the SME Task Force
From 1986

HoC: Prat y Coll, Juan

DG: Braun, Fernand

Task force: Information 
and Telecommunications 
Technologies (up to 1986)
DG: Carpentier, Michel

Task force: Small and Medium-sized
Enterprises (from 1986)
Director: Mayhew, Alan

President
Delors, Jacques (FR)
HoC: Lamy, Pascal

VI — Agriculture
(VP) Andriessen, Frans (NL)
HoC: Trojan, Carlo

DG: Legras, Guy

VII — Transport
Clinton Davis, Stanley (UK)
HoC: Meadows, Graham

DG: Steele, John Roderic 

(1985–86)
Peña Abizanda, Eduardo 
(from 1986)

VIII — Development
(VP) Natali, Lorenzo (IT)
HoC: Pensa, Paolo

DG: Frisch, Dieter

IX — Personnel 
and Administration
(VP) Christophersen, Henning 
(DK)
HoC: Bladbjerg, Bjarne

DG: Morel, Jean-Claude (1985–86)
Hay, Richard (from 1986)

X — Information, 
Communication and Culture
Ripa di Meana, Carlo (IT)
HoC: Perissich, Riccardo

DG: Froschmaier, Franz

NB: This presentation is based on the Commission’s organisation charts. P: President; VP: Vice-President; HoC: Head of Cabinet; DG: Director-General; I, II, III, etc.: numbers of the directorates-general.

120

The European Commission 1973–86 — History and Memories of an Institution

these agreements (1). The Court of Justice did not 
settle this question of principle, instead preferring 
to adopt a more flexible position based on the spe-
cific  characteristics,  terms  and  spirit  of  each  cat-
egory of agreement. Thus, with regard to free trade 
and/or  association  agreements  with  non-member 
countries, aimed at creating a single market in imi-
tation  of  the  Community’s  internal  market,  the 
Court followed the monist argument (see the Kup­
ferberg judgment (2)) by allowing the possibility of 
the direct effect of these agreements; later, this case-
law would be clarified by the need for a clear, pre-
cise and unconditional obligation (see the Demirel 
judgment (3)). By contrast, the Legal Service never 
sought to push the Court to recognise a direct ef-
fect of more ‘traditional’ international agreements, 
such as the GATT agreement (see the International 
Fruit Company judgment (4)). 

The 1970s and 1980s were also the decades in which 
an effective internal market within the Commu nity 
was actually established, thanks not only to the le-
gislative  activity,  which  would  culminate  in  the 
adoption  of  the  Single  European  Act  in  1986,  but 
also to the Court’s extensive case-law that exploited 
and  developed  the  relevant  provisions  of  the  EEC 
Treaty, essentially using a teleological interpretation 
of  the  objectives  pursued  by  the  treaty.  We  can  re-
strict ourselves here to recalling the advances in the 
free movement of goods that enabled the removal of 
many ‘hidden’ restrictions to the detriment of goods 

from  other  Member  States  (starting  with  the  Das­
sonville  judgment  (5))  and  the  confirmation  —  in 
the absence of harmonised Community rules — of 
the principle of mutual recognition of national legis-
lation protecting essential interests that had primacy 
over the free movement of goods (starting with the 
Cassis de Dijon judgment (6)). Once again, the solu-
tions worked out by the Court of Justice were based 
to a large extent on the positions taken by the Legal 
Service.  These  went  much  further  than  the  argu-
ments supported by the prevailing doctrine, which 
regarded the prohibition laid down by the treaty as 
concerning  only  national  measures  discriminating 
against products from other Member States (7).

Indeed, in almost every field we can find evidence 
of action by the Legal Service to ensure the smooth 
functioning of the European machine. We should, 
for example, credit it with finding the solution to 
the  crisis  caused  by  the  Council’s  inability  to  set 
agricultural prices at the start of the 1980s. In the 
absence  of  such  price-setting,  were  the  Member 
States to be allowed to regain their freedom of ac-
tion,  leading  to  the  collapse  of  the  common  agri-
cultural  policy?  The  Legal  Service  took  the  view 
that, on the basis of the principle of continuity of 
government, the old prices continued to apply. The 
Commission, by following that argument, was able 
to prevent a major crisis (8). 

Sigfrido Ramírez-Pérez

(1)  Gilsdorf,  P.,  ‘Le  service  juridique  de  la  Commission’,  unpublished  manu-
script, Legal Service, Brussels, 2003, p 36. The author would like to thank 
the Legal Service library for making this manuscript available.

(2)  Judgment  of  26  October  1982  in  Case  104/81  Kupferberg  &  Cie  [1982] 

ECR 3641.

(3)  Judgment of 30 September 1987 in Case 12/86 Demirel [1987] ECR 3719.
(4)  Joined  Cases  21/72  to  24/72  International  Fruit  Company  and  Others 

[1972] ECR 1219.

(5)  Judgment of 11 July 1974 in Case 8/74 Dassonville [1974] ECR 837.
(6)  Judgment of 20 February 1979 in Case 120/78 Rewe [1979] ECR 649.
(7)  European Commission, Thirty Years of Community Law, Office for Official 

Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg, 1982.

(8)  Lamoureux,  F.,  ‘Les  pouvoirs  de  la  Commission  en  cas  de  vide  juridique 
du fait de la carence du Conseil’, Revue du Marché Commun, No 277, May 
1984, pp. 215–224.

218

The European Commission 1973–86 — History and Memories of an Institution

Chapter 9 — Relations with the Council 

219

those of the Commission, without discounting the 
risk  of  real  competition:  ‘The  Council  Secretariat 
has  a  large  staff  (1  700  officials),  but  this  must  be 
compared with the 8 500 officials of the Commis-
sion  …  Only  a  small  number  of  staff  members  are 
involved in policymaking. If I remember correctly, 
the Council’s Directorate D (Science, Technology, 
Energy) comprises only about 15 A grade officials, 
hence the equivalent of a very average-sized director-
ate in the Commission. Turning the Council into 
a structure capable of competing with or replacing 
the  Commission  in  terms  of  expertise  would  re-
quire a veritable institutional revolution’ (2). 

The  Council  Secretariat  was,  therefore,  in  the 
Commission’s  view,  the  lesser  evil  and  a  way  of 
Euro peanising the Council and its Presidency. So, 
when  it  came  to  discussing  changes  in  the  role  of 
the  Council  secretary-general,  the  Commission 
was not opposed to raising his or her profile. In line 
with the Three Wise Men’s report, talks were held 
to  prepare  the  ground  for  the  European  Council 
meeting  in  Venice  in  June  1980  on  the  basis  of  a 
proposal by German Secretary of State Klaus von 
Dohnanyi, who wanted to give the Council secre-
tary-general a more political profile along the lines 
of a German secretary of state, making him or her 
a kind of alter ego in Brussels of the Council presi-
dent, and someone who might be induced to chair 
Coreper. 

Several  of  the  ministers  who  examined  this  pro-
posal in Varese on 8 February 1980 expressed res-
ervations:  the  French  minister  saw  in  it  a  ‘source 
of  political  conflict’,  while  his  British  counterpart 
feared a ‘new centre of power’. The reaction of Com-
mission  Vice-President  Finn  Olav  Gundelach  was 
more positive, however: thus according to the min-
utes of the meeting, ‘he highlighted the fundamen-
tal need for the Community and the Commission 
to have a strong Council. He stressed the fact that 

Cases in which the Luxembourg compromise was invoked (1) 

Member State

Council

Date

Subject

Ireland

Agriculture

23.6.1975 following 
mention in Coreper on 
14.6.1975

Veterinary matters

Ireland

General Affairs

13.12.1976

Conservation and management of 
fisheries resources

United Kingdom

Fisheries

18.7.1977

Ban on fishing Norway pout

France

General Affairs

2-4.4.1978

Euratom/USA relations

United Kingdom

Fisheries

25.9.1978

Framework agreement with Norway

United Kingdom

General Affairs

16-17.10.1978

France

Budget

United Kingdom

Fisheries

20.11.1978

19.2.1979

Denmark

Fisheries

27.10.1981

Fisheries agreement with third 
countries

1979 budget

Fisheries agreements between EEC 
and Canada, Sweden and Norway

Conservation measures for fisheries 
resources

Greece

External relations

4.5.1982

Export credit scheme

United Kingdom

Agriculture

10-11.5.1982

1982 agricultural prices

Denmark

Greece

Denmark

Denmark

Greece

Germany

Fisheries

21.12.1982

Common market organisation

External relations

24.6.1983

Export credit scheme

Fisheries

30.6.1983

Provisional quotas for Member 
States and Norway

Fisheries

Agriculture

Agriculture

11-12.7.1983

Fishing in the North Sea in 1983

26-27.9.1983

Dry grapes and figs scheme

13-16.5.1985

Germany

Agriculture

11-12.6.1985

Prices for cereals and colza in 
1985/86

Prices for cereals and colza in 
1985/86

this  need  was  being  increasingly  felt  now  that  the 
Community had to cope with new policy areas that 
were  much  broader  and  more  dynamic  than  those 
entrusted to it initially by the treaties. He felt that 
it should be possible to implement the German sug-

gestion  concerning  the  Council  secretary-general 
without causing rivalry between the institutions set 
up by the treaty’ (2).

(2)  HAEC, BAC 40/1986/27, Memo by Émile Noël dated 26 January 1979 on 

Commission/Council relations.

(1)  Note  from  Giuseppi  Ciavarini  Azzi  to  François  Lamoureux,  30  October 

(2)  HAEC, BAC 40/1986/27, Commission note for the file, Brussels, 14 Feb-

1986.

ruary 1980.

Jacques Delors chairs a meeting of the Economic and Financial Council in his 
capacity as French minister of finance in 1984.  To his left is Neils Ersbøll, the 
secretary-general of the Council. Their collaboration would prove even more 
central once Delors became president of the Commission a few months later.

The Council’s General Secretariat: 
between complementarity 
and misgivings

Relations  with  the  Council’s  General  Secretariat 
could  be  described  as  complementary  but  marked 
by misgivings about the emergence of a parallel and 
potential  rival  administration.  Noël  summarised 
the options in the abovementioned 1979 memo: ‘In 
order to cope with these increased responsibilities, 
the  Presidency  could  have  recourse  to  its  national 
administration  or  to  a  European  administration: 
the  Council  Secretariat’  (1).  The  preferred  option 
was  soon  made  clear:  ‘We  at  the  [Commission] 
Secretariat-General  consider  that  the  second  for-
mula is by far the better.’ 

He goes on to draw a quite precise comparison be-
tween the resources of the Council Secretariat and 

(1)  It  is  significant  that  Noël  speaks  of  ‘Council  Secretariat’  rather  than 
‘Council  General  Secretariat’.  The  Secretariat  of  the  European  Coal  and 
Steel  Community  (ECSC)  Council  was  given  the  status  of  General  Sec-
retariat  as  far  back  as  1954,  whereas  the  EEC  Commission  Executive 
Secretariat only became the Secretariat-General in 1967 with the merger, 
the High Authority having adopted this title in 1960.

This volume covers the period between  
the enlargement of the European 
Communities to Denmark, Ireland and 
the United Kingdom on 1 January 1973, 
Greece on 1 January 1981 and Spain and 
Portugal on 1 January 1986, and the 
signature of the Single European Act in 
February 1986. After the hopes raised by 
the The Hague Summit of December 1969, 
this period is often portrayed as one of 
stagnation. However, this volume, based 
largely on hitherto unpublished sources, 
shows that despite the less propitious 
climate, the plans and ideas initiated 
in the 1970s would pave the way for a 
new momentum embodied in the Single 
European Act and the revival  
of the mid-1980s.

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Contents  
of the publication

Foreword by  
José Manuel Durão Barroso

Introduction by  
Vincent Dujardin

PART ONE 
Administrative structures and staff 
(three chapters)

PART TWO  
Administrative culture and methods 
(four chapters)

PART THREE  
The Commission and the changing 
Community system (four chapters)

PART FOUR  
The Commission at work: policies  
and actions (14 chapters)

Twenty-two professors or researchers 
from 15 universities joined forces to 
produce this work under the coordination 
of the Université Catholique de Louvain 
in Louvain-la-Neuve. They were granted 
privileged access to the Commission’s 
archives and interviewed numerous 
former commissioners and officials who 
were at the centre of events at the time.

THE EUROPEAN  
COMMISSION  
1973–86

During this period, it was up to the 
Commission, then the ‘Commission 
of the European Communities’, to 
drive the European project further 
and deeper, taking due account of 
the social and economic backdrop 
and seizing opportunities as and 
when they arose. Between 1973 
and 1986, there were four Colleges 
and 45 commissioners. The 
institution itself had to adapt and 
introduce reforms in the wake of 
the successive enlargements and 
deepening integration, exemplified by 
the creation of the European Council 
and the strengthening of the powers 
of the European Parliament, whose 
members were elected by universal 
suffrage for the first time in 1979. 
A number of policies were given a 
new direction, including those on the 
internal market, innovation, research, 
regional policy, energy and the 
environment.

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‘HISTORY OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION’ SERIES 
Volume already published (new edition)

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION
1958–72

Volume 1 is also available for EUR 39. 
The two volumes (1958–72 and 
1973–86) can be bought together as  
a set for EUR 65.

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