On 29 March 1971, Rinse Zijlstra, Chairman of the Dutch Union of Protestant Agricultural Workers and Market Gardeners, expresses concern at the outbreaks of violence that occurred during the agricultural demonstration in Brussels and highlights the efforts made by the European authorities to establish a common agricultural policy.

In 1969, the Netherlands Ministry of Agriculture drafts a note which analyses in detail all the provisions included in the Mansholt Plan for the reform of the common agricultural policy (CAP).

On 29 April 1970, Sicco Mansholt, European Commissioner with special responsibility for agriculture, publishes his plans for agricultural reform.

‘Dum, dum, dumped — No way through the garbage.’ In March 1971, the discontent in the European farming sector over plans to reform the common agricultural policy (CAP) proposed by Sicco Mansholt, European Commissioner with special responsibility for agriculture, comes to a head.

On 30 March 1953, after the European Conference on the Organisation of Agricultural Markets held in Paris, Jacob Jan van der Lee, Head of the International Organisations Department in the Netherlands Ministry of Agriculture, emphasises the importance of agricultural integration in Europe.

Working session of the members of the Commission of the European Economic Community (EEC) in office from 10 January 1958 to 6 July 1967, under the presidency of Walter Hallstein. From left to right (starting with Sicco Mansholt, on the left, with his pipe): Sicco Mansholt, Robert Marjolin, Lambert Schaus, Lionello Levi Sandri, Guido Colonna di Paliano, Hans von der Groeben, Walter Hallstein, Émile Noël, Executive Secretary of the Commission, and Jean Rey.

On 15 February 1971, Sicco Mansholt (left), Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for Agriculture, Michel Cointat (centre), French Agriculture Minister, and Franco Maria Malfatti (right), President of the European Commission, talk in the margins of the Council of Agriculture Ministers of the Six in Brussels.

The Rey Commission (1967–1970) is the first single Commission, resulting from the Treaty merging the executive bodies of the three European Communities, signed in Brussels on 8 April 1965. The Commission is composed of 14 members. Second row from the left: Jean-François Deniau, Guido Colonna di Paliano, Wilhelm Haferkamp, Hans von der Groeben, Albert Coppé, Emmanuel Sassen, Henri Rochereau, Victor Bodson and Edoardo Martino. First row: Raymond Barre, Sicco Mansholt, Jean Rey, Lionello Levi Sandri and Fritz Hellwig.