In this interview, Georges Berthoin, Principal Private Secretary (from 1952 to 1956) to Jean Monnet and then to René Mayer during their respective Presidencies of the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), outlines the relations between the High Authority and European trade unions in connection with the implementation of the Schuman Plan.

In this interview excerpt, Mark Eyskens, Belgian Minister for Finance from 1980 to 1981, Prime Minister in 1981, Minister for Economic Affairs from 1981 to 1985 and Minister for External Relations from 1989 to 1992, describes the personality of several European political figures including Hans-Dietrich Genscher, German Foreign Minister from 1974 to 1992, Helmut Schmidt, German Federal Chancellor from 1974 to 1982, and Margaret Thatcher, British Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990.

In this interview excerpt, Mark Eyskens, Prime Minister of Belgium in 1981 and Minister for External Relations from 1989 to 1992, pays tribute to the personality of and role played by Mikhail Gorbachev, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1985, elected as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in October 1988 and President of the Soviet Union in 1990. Gorbachev initiated a series of economic and political reforms that led to perestroika.

In this interview excerpt, Mark Eyskens, Prime Minister of Belgium in 1981 and Minister for External Relations from 1989 to 1992, describes the efforts made to redefine relations between East and West after the collapse of the Soviet bloc and also to restore confidence, particularly between the United States and the Russian Federation.

In this interview excerpt, Mark Eyskens, Belgian Prime Minister in 1981 and Minister for External Relations from 1989 to 1992, discusses the collapse of Communism in Romania in December 1989, placing this event in the context of the collapse of the Soviet bloc in Eastern Europe, particularly after the successful protest movements in Poland in the 1980s and in Hungary in 1989.

In this interview excerpt, Mark Eyskens, Belgian Prime Minister in 1981 and Minister for External Relations from 1989 to 1992, emphasises the contrast between the coordinated approach of the Member States of the European Communities during the collapse of the Soviet bloc in Central and Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and the failure of European policy during the break-up of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s.

In this interview excerpt, Mark Eyskens, Prime Minister of Belgium in 1981, Minister for External Relations from 1989 to 1992 and Member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and of the Parliamentary Assembly of Western European Union (WEU) from 1992 to 2003, explains the role and the respective influence of these two institutions.

In this interview excerpt, Mark Eyskens, Belgian Prime Minister in 1981 and Minister for External Relations from 1989 to 1992, explains the reasons and processes that led to the signing in Paris on 21 November 1990 of the Charter of Paris for a New Europe, in which the Heads of State or Government of the States participating in the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) undertake to meet the objectives of democracy, peace and unity in a new Europe after the end of the Cold War.

In this interview excerpt, Mark Eyskens, Belgian Prime Minister in 1981 and Minister for External Relations from 1989 to 1992, emphasises the importance of the Treaty on European Union, signed in Maastricht on 7 February 1992, and stresses the need to pursue the institutional deepening of the European Union.

In this interview excerpt, Mark Eyskens, Prime Minister of Belgium in 1981 and Minister for External Relations from 1989 to 1992, analyses the introduction of a single President of the European Council under the Treaty of Lisbon and emphasises the difficulties concerning the distribution of powers between this President and the rotating Council Presidency.