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76-801: The Legal Service was founded in 1952 as the Legal Service of the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). It was the vision of its first director, Michel Gaudet, to have a ‘corps of jurists’ to give legal advice to and act as legal representatives of the predecessors of the commission. 1958–1967. After the establishment of the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom),

152-484: A Common European Home . The 1960s saw the first attempts at enlargement . In 1961, Denmark , Ireland , the United Kingdom and Norway (in 1962), applied to join the three Communities. However, President Charles de Gaulle saw British membership as a Trojan Horse for U.S. influence and vetoed membership, and the applications of all four countries were suspended. Greece became the first country to join

228-517: A Parliamentary Assembly and Courts . Collectively they were known as the European Communities . The Communities still had independent personalities although were increasingly integrated. Future treaties granted the community new powers beyond simple economic matters which had achieved a high level of integration. As it got closer to the goal of political integration and a peaceful and united Europe, what Mikhail Gorbachev described as

304-596: A common market and customs union , among its six founding members : Belgium , France , Italy , Luxembourg , the Netherlands and West Germany . It gained a common set of institutions along with the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM) as one of the European Communities under the 1965 Merger Treaty (Treaty of Brussels). In 1993

380-713: A referendum on 25 September 1972 . The Treaties of Rome had stated that the European Parliament must be directly elected, however this required the Council to agree on a common voting system first. The Council procrastinated on the issue and the Parliament remained appointed, French President Charles de Gaulle was particularly active in blocking the development of the Parliament, with it only being granted Budgetary powers following his resignation. Parliament pressured for agreement and on 20 September 1976

456-692: A complete single market was achieved, known as the internal market , which allowed for the free movement of goods, capital, services, and people within the EEC. In 1994 the internal market was formalised by the EEA agreement. This agreement also extended the internal market to include most of the member states of the European Free Trade Association , forming the European Economic Area , which encompasses 15 countries. Upon

532-597: A simplification of the European Union. One of these core ideas was to abolish the pillar structure, and replace it with a merged legal personality for the Union. This idea was included in the Treaty of Lisbon , which entered into force on 1 December 2009. With a legal personality, Union is, for instance, able to be part of international treaties. The Treaty of Lisbon also states that "the Union shall replace and succeed

608-653: The Community budget had been correctly spent by the Community's institutions. The ECA provided an audit report for each financial year to the Council and Parliament and gave opinions and proposals on financial legislation and anti-fraud actions. It is the only institution not mentioned in the original treaties, having been set up in 1975. At the time of its abolition, the European Community pillar covered

684-612: The European Communities (EC), which were founded in the 1950s in the spirit of the Schuman Declaration . Three pillars of the European Union Between 1993 and 2009, the European Union (EU) legally comprised three pillars. This structure was introduced with the Treaty of Maastricht on 1 November 1993, and was eventually abandoned on 1 December 2009 upon the entry into force of

760-666: The European Community , continuing to follow the supranational structure of the EEC. The EEC institutions became those of the EU, however the Court, Parliament and Commission had only limited input in the new pillars, as they worked on a more intergovernmental system than the European Communities. This was reflected in the names of the institutions, the council was formally the "Council of the European Union " while

836-536: The European Free Trade Association ). The six were France, West Germany, Italy and the three Benelux countries: Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. The first enlargement was in 1973, with the accession of Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom. Greece, Spain and Portugal joined in the 1980s. The former East Germany became part of the EEC upon German reunification in 1990. Following the creation of

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912-809: The Institutions of the ECSC in that the Common Assembly and Court of Justice of the ECSC had their authority extended to the EEC and Euratom in the same role. However the EEC, and Euratom, had different executive bodies to the ECSC. In place of the ECSC's Council of Ministers was the Council of the European Economic Community , and in place of the High Authority was the Commission of the European Communities . There

988-535: The Maastricht Treaty . It was desired to add powers to the Community in the areas of foreign policy, security and defence policy, asylum and immigration policy, criminal co-operation, and judicial co-operation. However, some member-states opposed the addition of these powers to the Community on the grounds that they were too sensitive to national sovereignty for the community method to be used, and that these matters were better handled intergovernmentally. To

1064-585: The Merger Treaty . Later, through the Treaty of Maastricht the word "Economic" was removed from the EEC, so it became simply the EC. Then with the Treaty of Amsterdam additional areas would be transferred from the third pillar to the first. In 2002, the ECSC (which had a lifetime of 50 years) ceased to exist because the treaty which established it, the Treaty of Paris , had expired. In the CFSP and PJCCM pillars

1140-759: The Ohlin Report the Spaak Report would provide the basis for the Treaty of Rome . In 1956, Paul-Henri Spaak led the Intergovernmental Conference on the Common Market and Euratom at the Val Duchesse conference centre, which prepared for the Treaty of Rome in 1957. The conference led to the signature, on 25 March 1957, of the Treaty of Rome establishing a European Economic Community. The resulting communities were

1216-504: The Treaty of Lisbon , when the EU obtained a consolidated legal personality . Within each pillar, a different balance was struck between the supranational and intergovernmental principles. Supranationalism was strongest in the first pillar. Its function generally corresponded at first to the three European Communities ( European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), European Economic Community (EEC) and Euratom ) whose organisational structure had already been unified in 1965–67, through

1292-543: The construction of Europe ( French : la construction européenne ). The following timeline outlines the legal inception of the European Union (EU)—the principal framework for this unification. The EU inherited many of its present responsibilities from the European Communities (EC), which were founded in the 1950s in the spirit of the Schuman Declaration . In a speech before the Nice Conference, Joschka Fischer , then Foreign Minister of Germany, called for

1368-588: The treaties . It was designed to be independent, representing the interest of the Community as a whole. Every member state submitted one commissioner (two from each of the larger states, one from the smaller states). One of its members was the President , appointed by the council, who chaired the body and represented it. Under the Community, the European Parliament (formerly the European Parliamentary Assembly) had an advisory role to

1444-415: The 1960s the council also began to meet informally at the level of heads of government and heads of state; these European summits followed the same presidency system and secretariat as the council but was not a formal formation of it. The Commission of the European Communities was the executive arm of the community, drafting Community law , dealing with the day to running of the Community and upholding

1520-475: The 2009 Treaty of Lisbon , which incorporated the EC's institutions into the EU's wider framework and provided that the EU would "replace and succeed the European Community". In April 1951, the Treaty of Paris was signed, creating the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). This was an international community based on supranationalism and international law, designed to help the economy of Europe and prevent future war by integrating its members . With

1596-538: The Community and began the longest application process for any country. With the prospect of further enlargement, and a desire to increase areas of co-operation, the Single European Act was signed by the foreign ministers on 17 and 28 February 1986 in Luxembourg and The Hague respectively. In a single document it dealt with reform of institutions, extension of powers, foreign policy cooperation and

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1672-651: The Community. Prior to 2004, the larger members (France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom) have had two Commissioners. In the European Parliament , members are allocated a set number seats related to their population, however these ( since 1979 ) have been directly elected and they sit according to political allegiance, not national origin. Most other institutions, including the European Court of Justice , have some form of national division of its members. There were three political institutions which held

1748-458: The Council agreed part of the necessary instruments for election, deferring details on electoral systems which remain varied to this day. During the tenure of President Jenkins , in June 1979, the elections were held in all the then-members (see 1979 European Parliament election ). The new Parliament, galvanised by direct election and new powers, started working full-time and became more active than

1824-409: The Council and Commission. There were a number of Community legislative procedures , at first there was only the consultation procedure , which meant Parliament had to be consulted, although it was often ignored. The Single European Act gave Parliament more power, with the assent procedure giving it a right to veto proposals and the cooperation procedure giving it equal power with the Council if

1900-467: The Council on Community matters. This replaced the informal parliamentary blocking powers established by the 1979 Isoglucose decision. It also abolished any existing state like Simple Majority voting in the EEC, replacing it with Qualified Majority Voting , a procedure more commonly used in international organisations. The Treaty of Amsterdam transferred responsibility for free movement of persons (e.g., visas , illegal immigration , asylum ) from

1976-676: The EC in 1961 as an associate member, however its membership was suspended in 1967 after a coup d'état established a military dictatorship called the Regime of the Colonels . A year later, in February 1962, Spain attempted to join the European Community. However, because Francoist Spain was not a democracy, all members rejected the request in 1964. The four countries resubmitted their applications on 11 May 1967 and with Georges Pompidou succeeding Charles de Gaulle as French president in 1969,

2052-435: The ECSC and Euratom were merged with that of the EEC, creating a single institutional structure governing the three separate Communities. From here on, the term European Communities were used for the institutions (for example, from Commission of the European Economic Community to the Commission of the European Communities ). The Council of the European Communities was a body holding legislative and executive powers and

2128-491: The EU in 1993, it has enlarged to include an additional sixteen countries by 2013. Member states are represented in some form in each institution. The Council is also composed of one national minister who represents their national government. Each state also has a right to one European Commissioner each, although in the European Commission they are not supposed to represent their national interest but that of

2204-542: The European Community," with the effect that, once the Treaty entered into force, the EU obtained the membership of the World Trade Organization (WTO) which had belonged to the European Communities pillar. The abolition of the "3-pillar structure" was welcomed by practitioners and academics who had long considered the 'pillar metaphor" to be unrealistic, if not absurd. The idea that one pillar could be

2280-487: The European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM or sometimes EAEC). These were markedly less supranational than the previous communities, due to protests from some countries that their sovereignty was being infringed (however there would still be concerns with the behaviour of the Hallstein Commission ). Germany became a founding member of the EEC, and Konrad Adenauer

2356-517: The European institutions until the French veto was reinstated. Eventually, a compromise was reached with the Luxembourg compromise on 29 January 1966 whereby a gentlemen's agreement permitted members to use a veto on areas of national interest. On 1 July 1967, when the Merger Treaty came into operation, combining the institutions of the ECSC and Euratom into that of the EEC, they already shared

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2432-579: The High Authority in protest and began work on alternative communities, based on economic integration rather than political integration. Following the Messina Conference in 1955, Paul-Henri Spaak was given the task to prepare a report on the idea of a customs union . The so-called Spaak Report of the Spaak Committee formed the cornerstone of the intergovernmental negotiations at Val Duchesse conference centre in 1956. Together with

2508-557: The Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) pillar to the European Community (JHA was renamed Police and Judicial Co-operation in Criminal Matters (PJCC) as a result). Both Amsterdam and the Treaty of Nice also extended codecision procedure to nearly all policy areas, giving Parliament equal power to the Council in the Community. In 2002, the Treaty of Paris which established the ECSC expired, having reached its 50-year limit (as

2584-483: The Legal Service (representation in court cases and legal advice). The different teams often cooperate on issues requiring multiple areas of expertise. https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/organisation_charts/organisation-chart-legalservice_en.pdf European Economic Community The European Economic Community ( EEC ) was a regional organisation created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957, aiming to foster economic integration among its member states. It

2660-408: The Legal Service is its Director-General (currently: Daniel Calleja Crespo), who is assisted by a deputy director-general (currently: Clemens Ladenburger). The Legal Service is composed of 14 teams that are responsible for different legal areas and policies. A director who reports to the director-general leads each team. The members of the Legal Service are expected to carry out the two main functions of

2736-673: The Legal Service is the in-house counsel to the commission. According to Commission decision EEC of 8 July 1959, the Legal Service is the only entity authorized to represent the commission before the Courts, meaning the following jurisdictions: the jurisdictions of the European Union, national courts and tribunals (mostly for debt recovery), international courts (mainly WTO), the EFTA Court, the arbitral tribunals, such as ICSID (International Center for Settlements of Investment Dispute), Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), and amicus curiae. Most of

2812-531: The Legal Service – the exclusive right to represent the Commission in courts and to give vis-à-vis legal advice to the Directorate-Generals on the interpretation of European law – did not change essentially since its creation. As the Legal Service is a “service of services”, its development followed that of the Commission's: its tasks are more diverse (as it deals with the legal background of all

2888-558: The Maastricht Treaty in 1993, these institutions became those of the European Union, though limited in some areas due to the pillar structure. Despite this, Parliament in particular has gained more power over legislation and security of the commission. The Court of Justice was the highest authority in the law, settling legal disputes in the Community, while the Auditors had no power but to investigate. The EEC inherited some of

2964-627: The Western and Eastern blocs, other than reconcile Member States such as France and Germany after WW2. The tasks entrusted to the Community were divided among an assembly, the European Parliament, Council, Commission, and Court of Justice. Moreover, restrictions to market were lifted to further liberate trade among Member States. Citizens of Member States (other than goods, services, and capital) were entitled to freedom of movement. The CAP, Common Agricultural Policy, regulated and subsided

3040-416: The agricultural sphere. A European Social Fund was implemented in favour of employees who lost their jobs. A European Investment Bank was established to "facilitate the economic expansion of the Community by opening up fresh resources" (Art. 3 Treaty of Rome 3/25/1957). All these implementations included overseas territories. Competition was to be kept alive to make products cheaper for European consumers. For

3116-479: The aim of creating a federal Europe two further communities were proposed: a European Defence Community and a European Political Community . While the treaty for the latter was being drawn up by the Common Assembly , the ECSC parliamentary chamber, the proposed defence community was rejected by the French Parliament . ECSC President Jean Monnet , a leading figure behind the communities, resigned from

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3192-534: The cases are before the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg. The director-general is empowered to designate the agents to act in front of the courts. In the most important cases, the director-general himself represents the Commission in front of the Court of Justice. The Legal Service is a horizontal service department directly under the authority of the President of the commission. The head of

3268-529: The commission was formally the "Commission of the European Communities ". There are more competencies listed in Article 3 of the European Communities pillar than there are in Article 3 of the Treaty of Rome. This is due to the fact that some competencies were already inherent in the Treaty of Tome, some were referred to in the Treaty of Rome, and some were extended under Article 235 of the Treaty of Rome. Competencies were added to cover trans-European networks, and

3344-525: The commission's work), and the number of its members now exceeds 400 (including support staff). It always has, and - still does - play a uniquely central role in the executive branch of the European Union. The director-general still attends all meetings of the College of Commissioners. The mission of the Legal Service is twofold: In their capacity as legal advisers, members of the Legal Service participate in inter-house consultations with other departments of

3420-436: The commission. Given its special role and the general rules of professional ethics, the members cannot give legal advice to individuals. The Legal Service also ensures the quality of legislation: its Quality of Legislation (LEG) team consults other departments from the point of view of legislative drafting rules. The Legal Service's role as agent of the Commission in court is comparable to the traditional role of legal counsel:

3496-509: The council was not unanimous. In 1970 and 1975, the Budgetary treaties gave Parliament power over the Community budget . The Parliament's members, up-until 1980 were national MPs serving part-time in the Parliament. The Treaties of Rome had required elections to be held once the council had decided on a voting system, but this did not happen and elections were delayed until 1979 (see 1979 European Parliament election ). After that, Parliament

3572-446: The council, Parliament or another party place a request for legislation to the commission. The Commission then drafts this and presents it to the council for approval and the Parliament for an opinion (in some cases it had a veto, depending upon the legislative procedure in use). The commission's duty is to ensure it is implemented by dealing with the day-to-day running of the Union and taking others to Court if they fail to comply. After

3648-418: The customs union, the treaty provided for a 10% reduction in custom duties and up to 20% of global import quotas. Progress on the customs union proceeded much faster than the twelve years planned. However, France faced some setbacks due to their war with Algeria . The six states that founded the EEC and the other two Communities were known as the " inner six " (the "outer seven" were those countries who formed

3724-412: The end of 1959 when the foreign ministers of the six members announced that would be meeting quarterly to discuss political issues and international problems. One of the first important accomplishments of the EEC was the establishment (1962) of common price levels for agricultural products. In 1968, internal tariffs (tariffs on trade between member nations) were removed on certain products. Another crisis

3800-410: The entry into force of the Maastricht Treaty in 1993, the EEC was renamed the European Community to reflect that it covered a wider range than economic policy. This was also when the three European Communities, including the EC, were collectively made to constitute the first of the three pillars of the European Union , which the treaty also founded. The EC existed in this form until it was abolished by

3876-404: The executive and legislative power of the EEC, plus one judicial institution and a fifth body created in 1975. These institutions (except for the auditors) were created in 1957 by the EEC but from 1967 onwards they applied to all three Communities. The Council represents the member state governments, the Parliament represents citizens and the Commission represents the European interest. Essentially,

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3952-523: The executive organs, the Commission and the Council of the EEC should replace the Council and the Commission of the Euratom, as well as the Council and High Authority of the ESCS. Following its entry into force, the three branches of the Legal Service were fused into a single department thus creating a unified Legal Service for the still legally independent European Communities. The original, core functions of

4028-574: The extent that at that time the Community dealt with these matters at all, they were being handled intergovernmentally, principally in European Political Cooperation (EPC). As a result, these additional matters were not included in the European Community; but were tacked on externally to the European Community in the form of two additional 'pillars'. The first additional pillar (Common Foreign and Security Policy, CFSP) dealt with foreign policy, security and defence issues, while

4104-435: The first treaty, it was the only one with a limit). No attempt was made to renew its mandate; instead, the Treaty of Nice transferred certain of its elements to the Treaty of Rome and hence its work continued as part of the EC area of the European Community's remit. After the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon in 2009 the pillar structure ceased to exist. The European Community, together with its legal personality ,

4180-579: The following areas; Since the end of World War II , sovereign European countries have entered into treaties and thereby co-operated and harmonised policies (or pooled sovereignty ) in an increasing number of areas, in the European integration project or the construction of Europe ( French : la construction européenne ). The following timeline outlines the legal inception of the European Union (EU)—the principal framework for this unification. The EU inherited many of its present responsibilities from

4256-453: The integration process. It was mentioned in the treaties for the first time in the Single European Act (see below). Greece re-applied to join the community on 12 June 1975, following the restoration of democracy, and joined on 1 January 1981. Following on from Greece, and after their own democratic restoration, Spain and Portugal applied to the communities in 1977 and joined on 1 January 1986. In 1987, Turkey formally applied to join

4332-421: The powers of the European Parliament , the Commission and European Court of Justice with respect to the Council were significantly limited, without however being altogether eliminated. The balance struck in the first pillar was frequently referred to as the " community method ", since it was that used by the European Community. The pillar structure had its historical origins in the negotiations leading up to

4408-428: The previous assemblies. Shortly after its election, the Parliament proposed that the Community adopt the flag of Europe design used by the Council of Europe . The European Council in 1984 appointed an ad hoc committee for this purpose. The European Council in 1985 largely followed the committee's recommendations, but as the adoption of a flag was strongly reminiscent of a national flag representing statehood ,

4484-467: The second additional pillar (JHA, Justice and Home Affairs), dealt with the remainder. Amendments by the treaty of Amsterdam and the treaty of Nice made the additional pillars increasingly supranational. Most important among these were the transfer of policy on asylum, migration and judicial co-operation in civil matters to the Community pillar, effected by the Amsterdam treaty. Thus the third pillar

4560-527: The single market. It came into force on 1 July 1987. The act was followed by work on what would be the Maastricht Treaty , which was agreed on 10 December 1991, signed the following year and coming into force on 1 November 1993 establishing the European Union, and paving the way for the European Monetary Union . The EU absorbed the European Communities as one of its three pillars . The EEC's areas of activities were enlarged and were renamed

4636-426: The three organizations – collectively referred to as the European Communities (EC) – had one Legal Service structured into three separate branches. The first leaders (directors, from 1960 director-generals) of these branches were Michel Gaudet (EEC), Robert Krawielicki (ECSC) and Theo Vogelaar (Euratom). The Merger Treaty (or the Treaty of Brussels, signed on 8 April 1965 and implemented on 1 July 1967) established that

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4712-419: The topic. For example, if agriculture was being discussed, the council would be composed of each national minister for agriculture. They represented their governments and were accountable to their national political systems. Votes were taken either by majority (with votes allocated according to population) or unanimity. In these various forms they share some legislative and budgetary power of the Parliament. Since

4788-632: The veto was lifted. Negotiations began in 1970 under the pro-European UK government of Edward Heath , who had to deal with disagreements relating to the Common Agricultural Policy and the UK's relationship with the Commonwealth of Nations . Nevertheless, two years later the accession treaties were signed so that Denmark, Ireland and the UK joined the Community effective 1 January 1973. The Norwegian people had rejected membership in

4864-495: The work of the Culture Committee and Education Committee that were previously sharing existing competencies. The only entry in Article 3 that represented something new is the competence covering the entry and movement of persons in the internal market. However, after the Treaty of Maastricht, Parliament gained a more formal role. Maastricht brought in the codecision procedure , which gave it equal legislative power with

4940-523: Was absorbed into the newly consolidated European Union which merged in the other two pillars (however Euratom remained distinct). This was originally proposed under the European Constitution but that treaty failed ratification in 2005. The main aim of the EEC, as stated in its preamble, was to "preserve peace and liberty and to lay the foundations of an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe". Calling for balanced economic growth, this

5016-584: Was also known as the European Common Market (ECM) in the English-speaking countries, and sometimes referred to as the European Community even before it was officially renamed as such in 1993. In 2009, the EC formally ceased to exist and its institutions were directly absorbed by the EU. This made the Union the formal successor institution of the Community. The Community's initial aim was to bring about economic integration, including

5092-464: Was composed of one judge per state with a president elected from among them. Its role was to ensure that Community law was applied in the same way across all states and to settle legal disputes between institutions or states. It became a powerful institution as Community law overrides national law. The fifth institution is the European Court of Auditors . Its ensured that taxpayer funds from

5168-404: Was controversial, the "flag of Europe" design was adopted only with the status of a "logo" or "emblem". The European Council, or European summit, had developed since the 1960s as an informal meeting of the Council at the level of heads of state. It had originated from then- French President Charles de Gaulle 's resentment at the domination of supranational institutions (e.g. the commission) over

5244-526: Was elected every five years. In the following 20 years, it gradually won co-decision powers with the Council over the adoption of legislation, the right to approve or reject the appointment of the Commission President and the commission as a whole, and the right to approve or reject international agreements entered into by the Community. The Court of Justice of the European Communities was the highest court of on matters of Community law and

5320-399: Was greater difference between these than name: the French government of the day had grown suspicious of the supranational power of the High Authority and sought to curb its powers in favour of the intergovernmental style Council. Hence the council had a greater executive role in the running of the EEC than was the situation in the ECSC. By virtue of the Merger Treaty in 1967, the executives of

5396-496: Was made leader in a very short time. The first formal meeting of the Hallstein Commission was held on 16 January 1958 at the Chateau de Val-Duchesse . The EEC (direct ancestor of the modern Community) was to create a customs union while Euratom would promote co-operation in the nuclear power sphere. The EEC rapidly became the most important of these and expanded its activities. The first move towards political developments came at

5472-428: Was renamed Police and Judicial Co-operation in Criminal Matters, or PJCCM. The term Justice and Home Affairs was still used to cover both the third pillar and the transferred areas. Since the end of World War II , sovereign European countries have entered into treaties and thereby co-operated and harmonised policies (or pooled sovereignty ) in an increasing number of areas, in the European integration project or

5548-415: Was subsequently renamed the European Community ( EC ) upon becoming integrated into the first pillar of the newly formed European Union (EU) in 1993. In the popular language, the singular European Community was sometimes inaccurately used in the wider sense of the plural European Communities , in spite of the latter designation covering all the three constituent entities of the first pillar. The EEC

5624-476: Was thus the main decision-making body of the Community. Its Presidency rotated between the member states every six months and it is related to the European Council , which was an informal gathering of national leaders (started in 1961) on the same basis as the council. The council was composed of one national minister from each member state. However the Council met in various forms depending upon

5700-720: Was to be accomplished through: Citing Article 2 from the original text of the Treaty of Rome of the 25th of March 1957, the EEC aimed at "a harmonious development of economic activities, a continuous and balanced expansion, an increase in stability, an accelerated raising of the standard of living and closer relations between the States belonging to it". Given the fear of the Cold War, many Western Europeans were afraid that poverty would make "the population vulnerable to communist propaganda" (Meurs 2018, p. 68), meaning that increasing prosperity would be beneficial to harmonise power between

5776-518: Was triggered in regard to proposals for the financing of the Common Agricultural Policy , which came into force in 1962. The transitional period whereby decisions were made by unanimity had come to an end, and majority-voting in the council had taken effect. Then- French President Charles de Gaulle 's opposition to supranationalism and fear of the other members challenging the CAP led to an "empty chair policy" whereby French representatives were withdrawn from

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