On 31 March 1965, the Commission of the European Economic Community presents three proposals to the Council, one of which involves gradually replacing the financial contributions of the Member States by own resources.

In his memoirs, Pierre Werner, former Luxembourg Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, discusses the empty chair crisis of 1965–1966.

On 30 June 1965, France, represented by its Agriculture Minister, Edgard Pisani, and by its Economy and Finance Minister, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, states its disagreement with the delegations of the five other Member States on the means of financing the common agricultural policy (CAP).

Reporting on the agricultural marathon on 30 June 1965, in Brussels, RTL journalist Georges Levhat comments on the positions taken by the various speakers and on the atmosphere at the negotiations. It is the failure of these talks which angers France and leads to the six-month empty chair crisis.

On 6 July 1965, Pierre Pescatore, Secretary-General of the Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign Affairs, sends a note to the Luxembourg diplomatic missions in Europe in which he sets out the position adopted by Pierre Werner, Luxembourg Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, in relation to the empty chair crisis and the political means by which it may be overcome.

On 12 July 1965, the German Foreign Office publishes the transcript of a telephone conversation held that day between Gerhard Schröder, German Foreign Minister, and Pierre Werner, Luxembourg Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, in order to review together the positions of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and Luxembourg on the empty chair crisis and the political means by which it can be overcome.

On 13 July 1965, the Economic Cooperation Service of the French Foreign Ministry drafts a note which sets out the deadlock situation facing the Community following the failure of the negotiations on the financial regulation of the common agricultural policy (CAP) which led to the empty chair crisis.

On 20 July 1965, Pierre Pescatore, Secretary-General of the Luxembourg Ministry for Foreign Affairs, provides an account of his meeting the previous day in Bonn with Rolf Lahr, State Secretary for Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), in order to consider the causes for the empty chair crisis and the possible diplomatic and political solutions to it.

On 2 August 1965, Nicolas Hommel, the Luxembourg Ambassador to Paris, sends a confidential note to Pierre Werner, Luxembourg Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, in which he gives his account of the reasons which led France, under General de Gaulle, to boycott Community activities in Brussels.

On 15 September 1965, Pierre Pescatore, Secretary-General of the Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign Affairs, sends a confidential note to the Luxembourg diplomatic missions in Europe and to some international organisations in which he sets out the reactions of Pierre Werner, Luxembourg Foreign Minister, following the press conference held by General de Gaulle in which he adopted a very critical stance towards the European Communities.

On 30 September 1965, Pierre Werner, Luxembourg Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, gives an address to the Belgian Chamber of Commerce in New York in which he expresses, in particular, his faith in Luxembourg's future in Europe and outlines the principles which form the basis of a solution to the empty chair crisis.

On 10 November 1965, Nicolas Hommel, Luxembourg Ambassador to France, sends a note to Pierre Werner, Luxembourg Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, in which he explains the arguments put forward by France to justify its empty chair policy.

On 12 November 1965, Pierre Werner, Luxembourg Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, informs the Belgian Foreign Minister, Paul-Henri Spaak, of the guiding principles of the Luxembourg Government regarding some of the issues raised by the empty chair crisis.

On 6 January 1966, Pierre Werner, Luxembourg Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, gives an address to the Luxembourg Chamber of Deputies in which he outlines, in particular, the causes of the empty chair crisis and sets out the position adopted by his country in order to overcome the political and institutional tensions which have divided France and its European Community partners since 30 June 1965.

On 20 January 1966, in Strasbourg, taking part in an exchange of views between the Community institutions on the empty chair crisis, Pierre Werner, Luxembourg Foreign Minister and President-in-Office of the Council of Ministers of the European Communities, outlines the nature of the activities of the Council and the Communities since 30 June 1965, with particular regard to tariffs and agriculture. He then gives an account of the efforts made in Luxembourg on 17 and 18 January, by the Foreign Ministers of the Six, to resolve the crisis.

The Luxembourg Accords of January 1966 provide for several practical methods of cooperation between the Council and the Commission (see ‘Second part of the meeting (28 and 29 January 1966): (a) Relations between the Commission and the Council’).

On 29 January 1966, after an extraordinary meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Six in Luxembourg, chaired by Pierre Werner, a press release is issued on the decisions taken on future relations between the Council and the European Commission with a view to bringing an end to the empty chair crisis which has paralysed Community operations since the breakdown of negotiations on the night of 30 June 1965.

In his memoirs, Pierre Werner, former Prime Minister of Luxembourg, recalls the course of the negotiations which, in January 1966, led to the Luxembourg institutional compromise that enabled the empty chair crisis to be brought to an end.

On 29 January 1966, following the extraordinary meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Six in Luxembourg, the Luxembourg Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Pierre Werner, describes the impact of the political compromise that put an end to the empty chair crisis which, for six months, had seen France boycotting intergovernmental meetings of Community bodies in Brussels.

The Extraordinary EEC Council of Ministers, meeting in Luxembourg on 17 and 18 and on 28 and 29 January 1966, heeds France's calls for the implementation of the majority voting rule and the role of the European Commission. The ‘Luxembourg Compromise' reached by the Council brings to an end the ‘empty chair crisis' prevailing since 30 June 1965.