ABSTRACT
The Commissioners Leon Brittan and Rene Steichen, who in January 1993 succeeded Frans Andriessen and Ray MacSharry, inherited the "Blair House problem" of serious opposition to the deals. Brittan and Steichen defended the Blair House Agreement as "compatible" with the reformed Common Agricultural Policy, but never managed to convince the French government. The French government's coalition-building efforts were directed primarily towards obtaining German support for its concerns, in exchange for promises to help Germany. The Franco-German coalition left its mark on September's Jumbo Council meeting, where the two governments presented their own texts instead of accepting a Council Presidency document. The structuring of decision-making was an interesting mix of supranational and intergovernmental elements. The Commission's numerous supranational attempts to steer decision-making by presenting the Blair House deals as the solution to problems faced by the Community and to delink them in the process, met with French countermoves.
