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The HAGUE SUMMIT of December 1969 was only the third summit meeting of the Six since the Treaty of Rome, and the first since the French vetoes on British membership of the European Communities (EC) and the empty chair crisis. The newly elected French President, Georges Pompidou, took the initiative in calling for a summit meeting that would address directly the several problems and issues facing the Six. The summit opened the way to the enlargement of the EC; it established guidelines for the consolidation and development of common policies; and it reaffirmed political union as the ultimate objective of the EC. More specifically, it endorsed proposals for the financing of the common agricultural policy, for extending the budgetary powers of the European Parliament, for full economic and monetary union to be reached by 1980, and for the development of closer political coordination. It heralded the new style of decision-making focusing on strategic leadership from heads of government and state (later institutionalized through the European Council), which would characterize the EC after 1970.