In this interview, Étienne Davignon, Head of Cabinet of the Belgian Foreign Minister, Pierre Harmel, from 1966 to 1969, outlines the reasons which led to the drafting of the Harmel Report on the future tasks of the Atlantic Alliance.
In this interview, Étienne Davignon, Member of the European Commission from 1977 to 1985, emphasises the political role of the Commission as the institution capable of fixing common objectives and defending the general interest of the Community.
In this interview, Étienne Davignon, Head of Cabinet of the Belgian Foreign Minister, Paul-Henri Spaak, from 1964 to 1966, considers the scope and identifies the weaknesses of the institutional compromise secured in Luxembourg on 29 January 1966 which put an end to the empty chair crisis.
In this interview, Étienne Davignon, former Director-General for Policy in the Belgian Foreign Ministry, outlines the issues involved in the Hague Summit, held on 1 and 2 December 1969 in the Dutch capital and attended by the the Heads of State or Government of the six Member States of the European Communities.
In this interview, Étienne Davignon, former Director-General for Policy in the Belgian Foreign Ministry, describes the preparations for what was to become the ‘Davignon Report’, which recommended greater cooperation between the Member States of the European Communities in the area of international policy.
Dans cette interview, Étienne Davignon, membre de la Commission européenne de 1977 à 1985 chargé notamment du Marché intérieur, des Affaires industrielles et de l'Union douanière, donne son sentiment sur les possibles avancées en matière d'intégration européenne suite au traité de Lisbonne signé en 2007.
Transcription of the interview with Étienne Davignon, Head of Cabinet of Belgian Foreign Ministers Paul-Henri Spaak from 1964 to 1966 and Pierre Harmel from 1966 to 1969, Director-General for Policy in the Belgian Foreign Ministry from 1969 to 1976, author of a report on the problems of political unification (the Davignon Report) in 1970, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the International Energy Agency from 1974 to 1977, Member of the Commission of the European Communities with special responsibility for the Internal Market and Industrial Affairs, the Customs Union, the Information Market and Innovation, Energy, the Euratom Supply Agency and International Nuclear Relations from 1977 to 1981, and Vice-President of the Commission of the European Communities with special responsibility for Industrial Affairs, Energy, the Euratom Supply Agency, Research and Science and the Joint Research Centre from 1981 to 1985, carried out by the Centre Virtuel de la Connaissance sur l’Europe (CVCE) on 11 December 2007 and 14 January 2008 in the studios of the Council of the European Union in Brussels. The interview was conducted by Étienne Deschamps, a Researcher at the CVCE, and particularly focuses on the following subjects: the empty chair crisis, Paul-Henri Spaak’s European commitment, the question of British accession to the European Communities and the ‘Harmel Report’, the Hague Summit in 1969, Pierre Werner and the Werner Report, the ‘Davignon Report’, the European Communities and the 1973 oil crisis, the ‘Davignon Plan’, the establishment of an industrial policy at Community level and Davignon’s work at the Commission of the European Communities.
In this interview, Étienne Davignon, former Director-General for Policy in the Belgian Foreign Ministry, explains how the Foreign Ministers of the Six reacted to the ‘Davignon Report’, which aimed to achieve progress in the field of political unification through greater cooperation in the area of foreign policy.