Relaunch of European integration

 

The early 1980s witnessed a new attitude of Member States towards the Community.

 

The unexpected emergence of enthusiasm, optimism and commitment to European integration, and a political will on the part of Member States to further the development of the Community, are difficult to explain. The change in mood, although surprising, was nevertheless essential to the survival of the idea of European unity. Among the factors that contributed to the new approach were:

 

– The improvement of the international economic situation;

 

– The commitment of the new French president, François Mitterrand, to the development of the Community, strongly supported by the German chancellor, Helmut Kohl;

 

– The appointment on 1 January 1985 as president of the European Commission of Jacques Delors, who decided to accelerate the process of integration by submitting concrete projects; and

 

– The realisation by the Member States that only common action could improve the competitiveness of national economies and increase their share of world exports, especially vis-à-vis the USA, Japan and the newly industrialised countries.

 

A greater convergence in all fields within the framework of the Community was perceived to be the answer to the problems posed by growing interdependence of international trade. Furthermore, national solutions to international problems proved unrewarding. The economic turmoil of 1973, when Member States retreated to protective measures applied at national level, is the best example in this respect. As a result, some of the earlier proposals for reforming the Community were re-examined and are discussed below.

 

The Tindemans Report

 

In December 1974, Leo Tindemans, the Belgian prime minister, was asked by his European Council colleagues at a Paris Summit to prepare a report on a European Union. The Report (called “The Tindemans Report”), which he submitted in December 1975, set a bold agenda for economic, monetary and political integration headed by a supranational executive body accountable to a directly elected bicameral parliament.27

 

The Report was considered very controversial and its implementation was never seriously examined. Its only practical result was an invitation to the Council and the Commission to prepare annual reports on progress towards the creation of a European Union.

 

The Three Wise Men Report


More realistic reforms were proposed in “The Three Wise Men” Report prepared at the request of the European Council of 1978 and submitted to it in October 1979.28 This report emphasised the role of the European Council as a true contributor to the improvement of the decision-making procedures within the Community. It also examined the reasons for failures of the Community institutions to perform their tasks efficiently. It explained that the failures lay “rather in political circumstances and attitudes that sometimes produced conflicting conceptions of the right way forward, and sometimes produced no clear conceptions at all”.29 However, the Report did not produce any concrete results.

 

The Spinelli and Dooge Reports


Another important initiative was a Report containing proposals for institutional reforms submitted by Altiero Spinelli, a strong supporter of reform of the Community leading to closer integration, a former Commissioner for Industrial Policy and an MEP.

 

The Report was endorsed by the EP, which set up an Institutional Committee, with Spinelli as a co-ordinating rapporteur, responsible for preparing a comprehensive draft regarding the creation of a European Union.

 

The Spinelli Draft Treaty of European Union was adopted with enthusiasm by the EP on 14 February 1984 (out of 311 MEPs, 237 were in favour, 31 against and 43 abstained).30

 

The Draft Treaty was strongly supported by President Mitterrand and indeed, at the Fontainebleau Summit in June 1984, under his initiative an ad hoc committee made up of representatives of the Member States, under the chairmanship of James Dooge,31 was set up in order to examine the Draft. At the same time, the Fontainebleau Summit created the Adonnino Committee and entrusted it with the preparation of proposals concerning the free movement of persons within the Community with a view to establishing a “Europe of Citizens”.32

 

The final report of the Dooge Committee was presented at the Brussels Summit in March 1985,33 and adopted by the majority of its members.

The report recommended the introduction of the co-decision procedure designed to give more powers to the EP, the recognition of the European Council as a Community institution and the preparation of a new treaty on the European Union.

 

Lord Cockfield’s White Paper


Lord Cockfield, the commissioner in charge of the internal market, volunteered to prepare a complete Internal Market Programme. His initiative was endorsed by Delors, who went on to extend the initial proposal to cover all industries, including steel and coal.34

 

The White Paper prepared by Cockfield identified the remaining barriers to trade within the Community and set up a timetable for their elimination by the end of 1992.

 

The White Paper and comments on the Dooge Committee Report from Member States were submitted to the Milan Summit in June 1985, which welcomed the White Paper and instructed the Council of Ministers to initiate a precise programme based on it. However, the main achievement of this summit was the decision of the heads of state or government to convene an IGC to revise the EEC Treaty, despite opposition from the UK, Denmark and Greece.

 

The conference met in Luxembourg and in Brussels during the autumn of 1985. The outcome of the IGC was the Single European Act.