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Community-minded members accepting an extension of integration (higher overall budget) as the means of resolving a problem. Indeed, taken together with the incident over farm prices already discussed, it demonstrates the extent to which even Britain – the apparently ever-reluctant European – had under Margaret Thatcher become sucked into the Community ‘game’. Fontainebleau has to take its place as one of the most significant meetings of the European Council. It resolved a long-standing dispute which was jeopardising progress on a whole range of issues, cleared the way for Spanish and Portugese accession, and set in motion the process which was to lead to the signature of the Single European Act (SEA). None of this could have happened without agreement between France and Germany. Fontainebleau marked the re-emergence of what was earlier termed the ‘Franco-German axis’. Removal of the long-standing budgetary problem obviated the danger that Britain would simply obstruct all progress, and this brought one immediate bonus. Even though Thatcher’s predilections and policy priorities ensured that Britain would still not normally be centre stage, she was heavily committed to the notion of ‘completing’ the Community as a trading and commercial entity by establishing a single market. In the short run, Thatcher could thus work with Mitterrand and Kohl on what may be considered the first phase in their mission to regenerate the Community. They also gained a major long-term ally in the person of Jacques Delors, whose appointment as the next Commission President was also agreed at Fontainebleau. The term ‘founding fathers’ is normally used in a Community context to refer to those who inspired the original treaties in the fifties and who led the institutions at the commencement of the process of integration. As the Community developed thereafter, many individuals played important roles, but it is hard to think of occasions prior to the appointment of Delors where any were indispensable, save perhaps for Roy Jenkins in the case of the establishment of EMS. Delors, a former civil servant and government minister, was to be President of the Commission for a decade, which witnessed the SEA and the implementation of the 1992 programme, the Maastricht Treaty on European Union, the inclusion of Portugal and Spain and successful negotiations for membership of Austria, Finland and Sweden. A convinced federalist, Delors was to become virtually synonymous with the Community during the decade 1985–95. With the three largest countries onside, it was logical for the new Commission to make the single market its major policy priority when it took office at the beginning of 1985. The establishment of internal free trade,
DOI link for Community-minded members accepting an extension of integration (higher overall budget) as the means of resolving a problem. Indeed, taken together with the incident over farm prices already discussed, it demonstrates the extent to which even Britain – the apparently ever-reluctant European – had under Margaret Thatcher become sucked into the Community ‘game’. Fontainebleau has to take its place as one of the most significant meetings of the European Council. It resolved a long-standing dispute which was jeopardising progress on a whole range of issues, cleared the way for Spanish and Portugese accession, and set in motion the process which was to lead to the signature of the Single European Act (SEA). None of this could have happened without agreement between France and Germany. Fontainebleau marked the re-emergence of what was earlier termed the ‘Franco-German axis’. Removal of the long-standing budgetary problem obviated the danger that Britain would simply obstruct all progress, and this brought one immediate bonus. Even though Thatcher’s predilections and policy priorities ensured that Britain would still not normally be centre stage, she was heavily committed to the notion of ‘completing’ the Community as a trading and commercial entity by establishing a single market. In the short run, Thatcher could thus work with Mitterrand and Kohl on what may be considered the first phase in their mission to regenerate the Community. They also gained a major long-term ally in the person of Jacques Delors, whose appointment as the next Commission President was also agreed at Fontainebleau. The term ‘founding fathers’ is normally used in a Community context to refer to those who inspired the original treaties in the fifties and who led the institutions at the commencement of the process of integration. As the Community developed thereafter, many individuals played important roles, but it is hard to think of occasions prior to the appointment of Delors where any were indispensable, save perhaps for Roy Jenkins in the case of the establishment of EMS. Delors, a former civil servant and government minister, was to be President of the Commission for a decade, which witnessed the SEA and the implementation of the 1992 programme, the Maastricht Treaty on European Union, the inclusion of Portugal and Spain and successful negotiations for membership of Austria, Finland and Sweden. A convinced federalist, Delors was to become virtually synonymous with the Community during the decade 1985–95. With the three largest countries onside, it was logical for the new Commission to make the single market its major policy priority when it took office at the beginning of 1985. The establishment of internal free trade,
Community-minded members accepting an extension of integration (higher overall budget) as the means of resolving a problem. Indeed, taken together with the incident over farm prices already discussed, it demonstrates the extent to which even Britain – the apparently ever-reluctant European – had under Margaret Thatcher become sucked into the Community ‘game’. Fontainebleau has to take its place as one of the most significant meetings of the European Council. It resolved a long-standing dispute which was jeopardising progress on a whole range of issues, cleared the way for Spanish and Portugese accession, and set in motion the process which was to lead to the signature of the Single European Act (SEA). None of this could have happened without agreement between France and Germany. Fontainebleau marked the re-emergence of what was earlier termed the ‘Franco-German axis’. Removal of the long-standing budgetary problem obviated the danger that Britain would simply obstruct all progress, and this brought one immediate bonus. Even though Thatcher’s predilections and policy priorities ensured that Britain would still not normally be centre stage, she was heavily committed to the notion of ‘completing’ the Community as a trading and commercial entity by establishing a single market. In the short run, Thatcher could thus work with Mitterrand and Kohl on what may be considered the first phase in their mission to regenerate the Community. They also gained a major long-term ally in the person of Jacques Delors, whose appointment as the next Commission President was also agreed at Fontainebleau. The term ‘founding fathers’ is normally used in a Community context to refer to those who inspired the original treaties in the fifties and who led the institutions at the commencement of the process of integration. As the Community developed thereafter, many individuals played important roles, but it is hard to think of occasions prior to the appointment of Delors where any were indispensable, save perhaps for Roy Jenkins in the case of the establishment of EMS. Delors, a former civil servant and government minister, was to be President of the Commission for a decade, which witnessed the SEA and the implementation of the 1992 programme, the Maastricht Treaty on European Union, the inclusion of Portugal and Spain and successful negotiations for membership of Austria, Finland and Sweden. A convinced federalist, Delors was to become virtually synonymous with the Community during the decade 1985–95. With the three largest countries onside, it was logical for the new Commission to make the single market its major policy priority when it took office at the beginning of 1985. The establishment of internal free trade,
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