European Diary, 1977-1981 Part 32

TUESDAY, 4 JANUARY. Brussels.

After lunch I went briefly to my temporary unattractive office in the rue de la Loi and then back to the house to begin a series of 'portfolio' interviews. The first two on the list, Haferkamp and Ortoli, were both late, as all the members of the old Commission had been off on an excursion to Paris, where Ortoli had a.s.sembled them for a farewell lunch at La.s.serre. There was fog on the road and they therefore all arrived back behind time and disordered.

Haferkamp made it clear that his mind had become more and more fixed on the suggestion that I had thrown out to him at Ditchley, that he should do External Affairs. I said the princ.i.p.al difficulty about this was the question of how the German Government, and perhaps Genscher in particular, was going to take the switch from expectations between him and Brunner, and that I must see Brunner but that he (Haferkamp) also must try to help handle this in Bonn. There was also the question of whether he was prepared to work hard at this job and at his English, which, although it had already improved a good deal since I had first seen him in the autumn, clearly needed to be better for relations with the Americans. On all points he was sensible except for a great and unconvincing protestation that he always worked immensely hard at all jobs. However, a reasonably satisfactory interview.

Ortoli came next and, given the fact that it was my view that he was bound to have Economic and Monetary Affairs (this, indeed, was one reason why it was essential to get Haferkamp out of them) and that he greatly wanted this, there was not much problem with him either. He was, as usual, a mixture of the warm and the p.r.i.c.kly and talked a little too much about his dignity as an ex-President rather than about his qualifications, which were great, for the Economic and Monetary job.

We then had Gundelach to dinner, together with Hayden and Crispin, and had a productive talk. He confirmed that he was willing to do Agriculture, was insistent, but reasonably so, that he must keep Fisheries for the time being, as the subject was so very much on the boil and he was the only person who really knew about it, but equally willing to hand it over in perhaps four to six months.1 He also talked rather usefully about other aspects of the disposition of portfolios, sticking to the view which he had accepted when I put it to him at Ditchley that Haferkamp was the bigger man and would be better than Brunner in External Affairs. After dinner he talked a bit about agricultural policy, saying we would have to get an interim price settlement, which he would try and keep as low as possible, before we could embrace any question of structural reform, but that he hoped to be ready for structural reform by May or June.

WEDNESDAY, 5 JANUARY. Brussels.

Vredeling at noon. No great difficulty with him on this occasion. Having rejected so contumaciously at Ditchley the 'human face' portfolio of Environment, Consumer Affairs, Nuclear Safety and Transport, he expressed considerable pleasure and grat.i.tude when I proposed to him Employment and Social Affairs together with the Tripart.i.te Conferences.2 As usual with Henk Vredeling there was a good deal of talk and it took me nearly an hour to deal with him.

After lunch I came straight up against what was likely to be one of the most difficult interviews: that with Brunner. And difficult indeed it proved to be. As I had never got near to promising him External Affairs he was not in any great position to complain. But complain he did and very hard indeed, and attempted to put a veto on Haferkamp's appointment. I said that I couldn't accept that and he then went off into, for him, some extremely rough talk indeed, talking at one stage, so Crispin avers, of 'loosing the dogs of Bonn' upon me, and at another stage of becoming part of the 'loyal opposition' in the Commission, and being about as threatening as he could.

We then boxed around a bit as to what alternative I could offer him, but I took the firm view that so long as he was talking in these terms there was no question of my making him any offer at all. He was threatening to resign; he was threatening all sorts of outside pressure and I thought it would be a great mistake to put forward any proposition even though I had a fairly firm one in my mind. When he had gone I decided I would have to re-summon Haferkamp to try and make sure that he was holding firm, as well as going through with the other interviews which I had lined up.

Giolitti was relatively easy. He was happy with Regional Policy, and the oversight of financial interventions generally. I also saw Vouel, the Luxembourger, and had a brief but I thought satisfactory interview with him, reiterating broadly what I had said to him at Ditchley: that if he wanted to he could keep Compet.i.tion, but that, particularly as he had indicated to me at Ditchley that he might be slightly bored with Compet.i.tion, I would also like him to consider the possibilities of Environment, Consumer Affairs etc. on the one hand, or the Budget on the other; but that he always had the fall-back of Compet.i.tion. This, I learnt subsequently, raised great doubts about the security of his position in Vouel's suspicious and unsubtle mind.

Another difficult interview that afternoon was with Natali, who as a Christian Democrat and therefore the senior Italian automatically became a Commission Vice-President. Natali is an exceptionally nice man and one of considerable weight and solidity. Communication with him is difficult because his English is non-existent and his French rudimentary, but this is outbalanced by the fact that he is naturally helpful and friendly, with a proper sense of his own position, but this not taking a p.r.i.c.kly form. However, the difficulty on this occasion was that I had practically nothing to offer him, except to talk rather vaguely in terms of special responsibilities, of which the main would be Enlargement. He wanted to get hold of Mediterranean agriculture and of Community relations with the countries on all sides of the Mediterranean, propositions which would have been impossible so far both as Gundelach as the Agriculture Commissoner and Cheysson as the Development Aid Commissioner were concerned, as well as being broadly unacceptable outside. So he had to go away with very little on his plate, though I made clear that this was not intended to be a final interview and I hoped to have a more substantial one on the following day. But this clearly left a sizeable loose end.

Davignon also came that evening, but caused no trouble. Despite all the rumours in the press that he would resign if not given External Affairs, he was perfectly happy, as I had known to be the case since Ditchley, to accept the new portfolio of Internal Market and Industrial Affairs. The interview with him was brief and amicable.

Then I re-summoned Haferkamp. The important point here, following on the Brunner interview, was how far he was prepared to hold firm. If he was going to weaken, my position vis-a-vis the German Government could be extremely difficult, and if I was going to be forced back into putting Brunner into External Affairs and finding it difficult to get Haferkamp out of Economic and Monetary Affairs, there were obviously going to be great repercus-sive difficulties about the disposition of other major portfolios affecting Ortoli and Cheysson and Vredeling, as well as the humiliation of having to appear to change under Brunner's threats.

Haferkamp at this meeting was fairly firm. I do not think I could put it above that. He wanted External Affairs, he thought it right that he should have it, but he was obviously a bit worried as to what the Bonn reaction would be, and I therefore could do little more than stiffen him and tell him we would talk again next morning. This interview did not encourage me, though I was nonetheless quite clear that I ought to hold firm on this major disposition. By this time Emile Noel, the Secretary-General, had been waiting for an hour and a half or so, and I could not do a great deal more than go down and have a scratch dinner with him and Hayden and Crispin and talk over the difficulties and bruises of the day and see what solutions we could find to them.

THURSDAY, 6 JANUARY/FRIDAY, 7 JANUARY. Brussels.

Immediately after my 9.45 arrival at the Berlaymont I had to take Ortoli aside and tell him that I had leaned very much in favour of his being reappointed, while Giscard had at times positively invited me to ask for the reverse to be the case, and that I now needed some help from him. In particular there must be no question of his adding to Directorate-General 2 (Economic and Monetary Affairs), DG15 (Financial Inst.i.tutions and Taxation), nor I hoped of DG18 (Coal and Steel Funds), and that I also hoped that he would be generous in dealing with the frontier with Giolitti and would arrive at an amicable settlement with him. Ortoli freezes up, not so much in manner as in substance, as soon as anything touching his prerogatives is raised, and he said that he would have to think about these matters and let me know, but implying that it would all be very difficult.

I had several other interviews in the course of the morning: a useful one with Cheysson. There are no problems except marginal frontier ones about his portfolio (Development Aid-Relations with the Third World), although he obviously has some territorial ambitions in the Arab world, and like the clever busy little bee which he is he was very anxious to be consulted and get involved with other dispositions.

I also saw Haferkamp that morning. He was stronger than the previous evening: very firm on the fact that the German package as a whole was perfectly adequate (Brunner to have Energy as well as Science and Research). But I urged him very strongly to make his own soundings in Germany. Brunner was on the telephone the whole time; he (Haferkamp) really ought to talk to people, to Schmidt himself if possible, to Genscher, and also to Brandt, to whom he attached great importance. He left me shortly before lunch saying he would do this.

In the meantime, mixed messages had come in from Ortoli. He was clearly willing to be reasonably accommodating about DG15, totally unwilling to be accommodating about DG18, and inclined to be pretty difficult in dealings with Giolitti, certainly so far as the European Investment Bank was concerned. We then adjourned for lunch in my dining room. Haferkamp came in with the news, just before we started, that he had spoken to Brandt, he had spoken to Vetter (the head of the German trade unions), he had spoken to Wischnewski (Schmidt's aide and a member of the German Cabinet), who had spoken to Schmidt who was in Spain (I suspect Haferkamp has a slight fear of talking to Schmidt direct himself), and had got very good and positive reactions from them and was therefore totally stiff on External Affairs and was going forward to it with confidence and thought that Brunner would undoubtedly in due course accept Energy, etc. He had not, however, spoken to Genscher, saying, not unreasonably, that he hadn't done badly in the twenty minutes since he had seen me previously.

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 Inst.i.tutions) 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 Vouel 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 circ.u.mstances, 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 a.s.suagements 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.

Appendix 2.

Presidents, Amba.s.sadors, Governments The Presidents of the European Parliament Georges Spenale (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) Amba.s.sadors or Permanent Representatives of the Member States who collectively formed COREPER (Comitedes Representants Permanents) Belgium Josef Van der Meulen until 1979, then Paul Noterdaeme Denmark Gunnar Riberholdt Germany Ulrich Lebsanft until 1977, then Helmut Sigrist until 1979, then Gisbert Poensgen France Le Vicomte Luc de La Barre de Nanteil Ireland Brendan Dillon Italy Eugenio Plaja until 1980, then Renato Ruggiero Luxembourg Jean Dondelinger Netherlands Jan Lubbers until 1980, then Charles Rutten United Kingdom Sir Donald Maitland until 1979, then Sir Michael Butler The Other Amba.s.sadors to the Community most frequently dealt with United States Deane Hinton until 1979, then Thomas Enders Spain Raimundo Ba.s.sols y Jacas Portugal Antonio de Siquiera Freire Greece Stephane Stathatos Australia Sir James Plimsoll India K.B. Lall until 1977, then P. K. Dave j.a.pan Masahiro Nis.h.i.+bori until 1979, then Takaaki Kajawa China Huan Hsiang until 1978, then Mao Chao Kang Canada Marcel Cadieux until 1979, then Richard M. Tait Most Western countries had three amba.s.sadors 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.

Head of state His Majesty King Baudouin Prime Minister Leo Tindemans until October 1978, then Paul Vanden Boeynants until April 1979, then Wilfried Martens Foreign Minister Renaat Van Elslande until June 1977, then Henri Simonet until May 1980, then Charles-Ferdinand Nothomb DENMARK.

Head of state Her Majesty Queen Margrethe Prime Minister Anker Jrgensen Foreign Minister K. B. Andersen until August 1978, then Henning Christophersen until October 1979, then Kjeld Olesen FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY.

Head of state Walter Scheel until July 1979, then Karl Carstens Chancellor Helmut Schmidt Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher Economic Affairs Hans Friderichs until October 1977, then Graf Otto Lambsdorff Finance Hans Apel until February 1978, then Hans Matthofer Agriculture Josef Ertl FRANCE.

Head of state Valery Giscard d'Estaing (also head of government) Prime Minister Raymond Barre Foreign Minister Louis de Guiringaud until November 1978, then Jean Francois-Poncet Economics Raymond Barre until September 1978, then Rene Monory Agriculture Christian Bonnet until March 1977, then Pierre Mehaignerie IRELAND.

Head of state Patrick Hillery Prime Minister Liam Cosgrave until June 1977, then (Taoiseach) Jack Lynch until December 1979, then Charles Haughey Foreign Minister Garret Fitzgerald until June 1977, then Michael O'Kennedy until December 1979, then Brian Lenihan ITALY.

Head of state Giovanni Leone until June 1978, then Alessandro Pertini Prime Minister (President of the Council) Giulio Andreotti until June 1979, then Francesco Cossiga until September 1980, then Arnaldo Forlani Foreign Minister Arnaldo Forlani until June 1979, then Franco Malfatti until January 1980, then Attilio Ruffini until April 1980, then Emilio Colombo Treasury Gaetano Stammati until March 1978, then Filippo Pandolfi Agriculture Giovanni Marcora LUXEMBOURG.

Head of state HRH Grand Duke Jean Prime Minister Gaston Thorn until June 1979, then Pierre Werner Foreign Minister Gaston Thorn until November 1980, then Colette Flesch NETHERLANDS.

Head of state Her Majesty Queen Juliana until she abdicated in April 1980, then Her Majesty Queen Beatrix Prime Minister Joop den Uyl until December 1977, then Andries van Agt Foreign Minister Max van der Stoel until December 1977, then Christoph van der Klaauw UNITED KINGDOM.

Head of state Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II Prime Minister James Callaghan until May 1979, then Margaret Thatcher Foreign Minister Anthony Crosland until February 1977, then David Owen until May 1979, then Lord Carrington Chancellor of the Exchequer Denis Healey until May 1979, then Sir Geoffrey Howe Agriculture John Silkin until May 1979, then Peter Walker The presidency of the Council of Ministers (and hence of the European Council, Committee of Permanent Representatives or Amba.s.sadors, 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: January-June 1977: United Kingdom July-December 1977: Belgium January-June 1978: Denmark July-December 1978: Germany January-June 1979: France July-December 1979: Ireland January-June 1980: Italy July-December 1980: Luxembourg Governments of the Applicant Countries GREECE.

Head of state Konstantinos Tsatsos until May 1980, then Konstantinos Karamanlis Prime Minister Konstantinos Karamanlis until May 1980, then George Rallis Foreign Minister Dimitrios Bitsios until November 1977, then Panayotis Papaligouras until May 1978, then George Rallis until May 1980, then Konstantinos Mitsotakis Minister for EEC Giorgios Koutogeorgis PORTUGAL.

Head of state General Antonio Eanes Prime Minister Mario Soares until August 1978, then Alfredo n.o.bre da Costa until October 1978, then Carlos Mota Pinto until July 1979, then Maria Pintasilgo until December 1979, then Francisco Sa Carneiro Foreign Minister Jose Medeiros Ferraira until February 1978, Victor Sa Machado until August 1978, then Carlos Correia Gago until October 1978, then Joo de Freitas-Cruz until December 1979, then Diogo Freitas do Amaral SPAIN.

Head of state King Juan Carlos Prime Minister Adolfo Suarez Gonzales Foreign Minister Marcelino Oreja Aguirre until September 1980, then Jose Pedro Perez-Llorca Minister for EEC Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo y Bustelo until September 1980, then Eduardo Punset Casals

1 Time and Chance (1987), p. 399.

1 George Thomson, b. 1921, cr. Lord Thomson of Monifieth 1977, KT, was a Commissioner 19737, having previously occupied three Labour Cabinet offices. Chairman of the Independent Broadcasting Authority 19818.

2 And, as such, the successor at several removes of Jean Jaures.

3 Dr Hans Kutscher, b. 1911, was a Judge of the German Federal Const.i.tutional Court 195570, a Judge of the Court of Justice of the European Communities 19706, and its President 197680.

4 Anthony Lester, QC, b. 1936, had worked as a special adviser to me in the Home Office, 19746.

5 The Council of Ministers is under the Treaty of Rome the legislature of the Community. The Commission proposes, it disposes. As its name implies, it is made up of ministers from all the member states. The Foreign Affairs (or General Affairs) Council, which I always attended, is the central council. But it has subdivided itself into a number of specialized councils of which the Economic and Finance Council (Ecofin) and the Agricultural Council are the most important. The Council of Ministers is not to be confused with the more recently created European Council, made up of heads of government and their Foreign Ministers, which met three times (now twice) a year as opposed to once a month. The presidency of all these councils rotates between member states every six months (see page 673).

6 Anthony Crosland, 191877, was British Foreign Secretary from April 1976 until his sudden illness and death in February 1977. As such the six-monthly rotating arrangement made him President of the Council of Ministers from 1 January.

7 Ludwig Fellermaier, b. 1930, was an SPD Deputy for Bavaria 196580, and leader of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament 196879.

8 Walter ('Fritz') Mondale, b. 1928, had been Senator for Minnesota for twelve years before becoming Carter's Vice-President 197781. He was the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for the presidency in 1984.

9 Valery Giscard d'Estaing, b. 1926, was President of the French Republic 197481, having been Minister of Finance 19626 and 196974.

10 Abu Daoud, 'Black September' terrorist, had been arrested in France in connection with the murder of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972. In spite of extradition demands from the German and Israeli Governments, the French Government, provoking scathing criticism from both the French and foreign press, had released him.

11 Raymond Barre, b. 1924, a Vice-President of the European Commission 196773, was Independent UDF Prime Minister of France 197681, candidate for President of the Republic 1988.

12 Jacques Tine, b. 1914, was French Amba.s.sador to NATO, 19759. We had known him and his wife, Helena, since 1955.

13 Dr Garret Fitzgerald, b. 1926, son of the first Minister of External Affairs of the Irish Free State, was Irish Foreign Minister 19737, and Taoiseach 19812 and 19827.

14 A little nineteenth-century chateau in a pet.i.t parc about three miles from the Berlaymont which the Belgian Government had given to the Community for entertainment purposes. The Chateau Ste Anne (20 January) was a subsidiary establishment in the same complex.

15 David Owen, b. 1938, was Minister of State at the Foreign Office until he became Foreign Secretary at the end of February 1977.

16 Karl-i-Bond Nguga, b. 1938, was seven months later arrested and condemned to death by the regime although his sentence was subsequently commuted to life imprisonment by Mobutu.

17 W. T. Rodgers, b. 1928, had become Secretary of State for Transport in 1976, after occupying junior and intermediate posts in the Foreign Office, Treasury and other departments.

18 David Astor, b. 1912, the second son of Waldorf (2nd Viscount) and Nancy Astor, was editor and proprietor of the Observer 194875.

19 Jargon of the time for the Conference on International Economic Cooperation (CIEC) between nineteen developing countries and seventeen industrial ones which met intermittently between 1975 and 1977.

20 George W. Ball, b. 1909, was US Under-Secretary of State, 19616.

21 A detailed written schedule of proposals which has to supplement the Programme speech.

22 Baron Leon Lambert, 192887, was President of the Banque Lambert de Bruxelles.

23 Paul-Henri Spaak, 18991972, Prime Minister and/or Foreign Minister of Belgium intermittently between 1936 and 1957, and Secretary-General of NATO 195761, had three children: Fernand, a senior Commission official; Antoinette, a member of the European Parliament; and Marie, the wife of Sir Michael Palliser (see page 130).

24 Ladbroke Square was where we lived in London until the late summer of 1977 when we moved across the square to a flat in Kensington Park Gardens.

25 'Political Cooperation' between the member states was established outside the Treaty of Rome following the Luxembourg Report of 1970. As its name implies, its object is coordination of foreign policy. Because it is alongside but outside the Community as such it follows somewhat different procedures from the Council of Ministers. The Commission partic.i.p.ates but less centrally. Different officials of member states (the Political Directors) are involved, but the same Foreign Ministers.

26 Hans-Dietrich Genscher, b. 1927, German Free Democratic leader, Minister of the Interior 196974, and of Foreign Affairs from 1974.

27 Gaston Thorn, b. 1928, was Foreign Minister of Luxembourg 196980, and Prime Minister (as well) 19749. He became my successor as President of the European Commission 19815.

28 Louis de Guiringaud, 191182, was a professional diplomat who was French Foreign Minister 19768.

29 Arnaldo Forlani, b. 1925, Italian (Christian Democrat) Foreign Minister 19769, Prime Minister 19801.

30 Renaat Van Elslande, b. 1916, was Belgian Foreign Minister 19747, and Minister of Justice 197780.

31 Jack Jones, b. 1913, General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union 196878, then the most powerful British union leader.

32 Douglas Hurd, b. 1930, a Conservative MP since 1974, was then Opposition spokesman on European affairs and since 1986 has been Home Secretary.

33 Sir Donald Maitland, b. 1922, Permanent Representative to the UN 19734, to the EC 19759 and Permanent Under-Secretary for Energy 19802.

34 Klaus von Dohnanyi, b. 1928, German Social Democratic Minister of State responsible for European business 197681, Governing Mayor of Hamburg 19817.

35 Sir Peter Kirk, 192877, was Conservative MP for Gravesend 195564, and for Saffron Walden 196577. He was a dedicated European of high intellectual quality.

36 Denis Healey, b. 1917, Defence Secretary 196470, Chancellor of the Exchequer 19749, deputy leader of the Labour Party 19803.

37 Hans Apel, b. 1932, German Minister of Finance 19748, and of Defence 197882, a former Commission official.

38 John Silkin, 192387, British Minister of Agriculture 19769.

39 Henri Simonet, b. 1931, Belgian (Walloon Socialist) Economics Minister 19723, a Vice-President of the European Commission 19737, Foreign Minister 197780.