In this interview excerpt, Pierre Pescatore, a Luxembourg diplomat from 1947 to 1967 and a member of the Drafting Group at the Intergovernmental Conference on the Common Market and Euratom from October 1956 to March 1957, describes his memories of these negotiations, which led to the signing of the Treaties establishing the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom). He particularly mentions the roles played by Yves Devadder, Head of the Legal Office in the Belgian Foreign Ministry, and his Dutch counterpart, Willem Riphagen.

In this interview excerpt, Pierre Pescatore, Director in the Political Affairs Directorate of the Luxembourg Foreign Ministry from 1959 to 1963, explains the position of the Luxembourg Government on the Fouchet Plan in 1961. The Fouchet Plans, submitted by France, provided for the establishment of an indissoluble union of states based on intergovernmental cooperation and respect for the identity of Member States and their peoples, while proposing cooperation, alongside the Community treaties, in the areas of foreign policy and defence, science, culture and human rights protection.

In this interview excerpt, Pierre Pescatore, Secretary-General and Director ad interim in the Political Affairs Directorate of the Luxembourg Foreign Ministry from 1964 to 1967, discusses the empty chair crisis, during which the French representatives, in disagreement with the Commission of the European Communities over the funding of the common agricultural policy (CAP), refused to participate in the intergovernmental meetings of the Community bodies in Brussels. Pierre Pescatore also shares his views on the institutional compromise secured in Luxembourg on 29 January 1966 that brought the empty chair crisis to an end.