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Mathias Haeussler, Roy Jenkins and the European Commission Presidency, 1976-1980: At the Heart of Europe. By N. Piers Ludlow, Twentieth Century British History, Volume 29, Issue 2, June 2018, Pages 322–324, https://doi.org/10.1093/tcbh/hwx033
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The idea that a first-rank British politician could be at the very centre of the European integration process seems unthinkable, indeed almost absurd in today’s Brexit Britain. In January 1977, however, the Labour heavyweight Roy Jenkins became the first—and quite possibly the last—Briton ever to be appointed to the top job in Brussels, namely, the Presidency of the European Commission. Piers Ludlow’s masterful study not only sheds light on how Jenkins adjusted to his new role and sought to pursue his political objectives in office but it also reveals something more fundamental about the nature of the European Commission Presidency, as well as about the underlying tension between national and supranational dynamics at the very heart of the European integration process.
It is perhaps not surprising that the search for a British candidate for the Commission Presidency in 1976 quickly led to Roy Jenkins: after all, Jenkins had been one of the most vocal proponents of British membership of the European Community (EC) since the 1950s, gaining him the deserved reputation as ‘Britain’s leading pro-European alongside Edward Heath’ (p. 14). Apart from his intellectual support of the integrationist project, Jenkins also displayed strong enthusiasm for Continental lifestyles and culture, notably of course for French wines and cuisine. Yet, the main reason why key figures like the French President Giscard d’Estaing or the German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt lobbied so strongly for Jenkins’ appointment was due to the fact that he was a first-rank politician, having played a key role in several Labour governments under Harold Wilson. Thus, Giscard and Schmidt hoped that a prominent politician of Jenkins’ stature would inject a new sense of dynamism and vitality into the workings of the EC Commission, which was—not entirely without foundation—seen as the very embodiment of technocratic and bureaucratic governance at the time. In light of the manifold political and economic crises of the 1970s, Jenkins’ appointment therefore constituted a clear sign of the EC’s growing ambitions to assert itself as a visible and capable political actor on the international stage.
