Rey Commission

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 President ReyTerm: 1967-1970  Party: LDR
President Rey
Term: 1967-1970  Party: LDR

The Rey Commission is the European Commission that held office from 2 July 1967 to June 30, 1970. Its President was Jean Rey.

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[edit] Work

The Rey Commission
The Rey Commission

It was the first Commission of the merged European Communities. It was the successor to the Hallstein Commission and was succeeded by the Malfatti Commission. The Commission worked to reinforce the Community's institutions and increase the powers of the European Parliament. It also campaigned for an elected Parliament, which was achieved later in 1979. It oversaw the competition of the customs union in 1968.[1]

Rey played an important role the Summit of The Hague in 1969, where the European leaders decided to relaunch European integration with two new initiatives: on the one hand, Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union (EMU), and on the other hand, European Political Cooperation (EPC), which foreshadow the euro and the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union today.

Finally, in 1970, the last year of this mandate, Rey managed to win the European governments' support for his proposal to give the Community "own resources". This meant that the EEC no longer depended exclusively on contributions by the member states, but could complete these with revenues from customs duties, levies on agricultural products from outside the Community, in addition to a share of the VAT revenue.

[edit] Membership

The commission was composed of 14 members, 3 from Italy, West Germany, and France, 2 from Belgium and the Netherlands and 1 from Luxembourg.

Portfolio(s) Commissioner Member state Party Notes
President;
Secretariat General, Legal Service and Spokesman’s Service
Jean Rey Flag of Belgium Belgium PRL
Vice-president;
Agriculture
Sicco Mansholt Flag of the Netherlands Netherlands PvdA
Vice-president;
Social Affairs, Personnel and Administration
Lionello Levi Sandri Flag of Italy Italy PSI
Vice-president;
Research and Technology, Distribution of Information
and Joint Research Center.
Fritz Hellwig Flag of West Germany West Germany CDU
Vice-president;
Economic and Finance, Statistical Office
Raymond Barre Flag of France France none
Budgets, Credit and Investment, Press and Information Albert Coppé Flag of Belgium Belgium CD&V
Internal Market and Regional Policy Hans von der Groeben Flag of West Germany West Germany none[2]
Competition Maan Sassen Flag of the Netherlands Netherlands KVP
Development Assistance Henri Rochereau Flag of France France
Industrial Affairs Guido Colonna di Paliano Flag of Italy Italy Resigned 8 May
1970, not replaced.
Foreign Trade, Enlargement
and Assistance to developing countries
Jean-François Deniau Flag of France France UDF
Transport Victor Bodson Flag of Luxembourg Luxembourg LSAP
Vice-president;
Energy
Wilhelm Haferkamp Flag of West Germany West Germany
Foreign relations Edoardo Martino Flag of Italy Italy

[edit] Summary by political leanings

The colour of the row indicates the approximate political leaning of the office holder using the following scheme:

affiliation number of commissioners
right leaning / conservative 5
liberal 2
left leaning / socialist 3
unknown/independent 4

[edit] References

  1. ^ Discover the former Presidents: The Rey Commission, Europa (web portal), Accessed 23 August 2007
  2. ^ But was an advisor to the CDU party

[edit] External links