The Rey Commission is the
European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...
that held office from 2 July 1967 to 30 June 1970. Its president was
Jean Rey.
Work
It was the first commission of the
merged European Communities
The European Communities (EC) were three international organizations that were governed by the same set of Institutions of the European Union, institutions. These were the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), the European Atomic Energy Co ...
. It was the successor to the
Hallstein Commission and was succeeded by the
Malfatti Commission. The commission worked to reinforce the
Communities' institutions and increase the powers of the
European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...
. It also campaigned for an elected parliament, which was achieved later in 1979. It oversaw the competition of the
customs union in 1968.
Discover the former presidents: The Rey Commission
Europa (web portal)
Europa is the official web portal of the European Union (EU), providing information on how the EU works, related news, events, publications and links to websites of institutions, agencies and other bodies. ''.europa.eu'' is also used as a com ...
, Accessed 23 August 2007
Rey played an important role the Summit of The Hague in 1969, where the European leaders decided to relaunch European integration with two new initiatives: on the one hand, Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union (EMU), and on the other hand, European Political Cooperation (EPC), which foreshadow the euro
The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...
and the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
today.
Finally, in 1970, the last year of this mandate, Rey managed to win the European governments' support for his proposal to give the Community "own resources". This meant that the EEC no longer depended exclusively on contributions by the member states, but could complete these with revenues from customs duties, levies on agricultural products from outside the EEC, in addition to a share of the VAT revenue.
Membership
The commission was composed of 14 members, 3 from Italy, West Germany, and France, 2 from Belgium and the Netherlands and 1 from Luxembourg.
Summary by political leanings
The colour of the row indicates the approximate political leaning of the office holder using the following scheme:
References
External links
European Commission Website
PDF Archive of Commission Membership
(not all Rey Commission members included)
PDF Analysis of Political Experience of Commission Membership
by UK politician Tom King and the Centre for Policy Studies
The Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) is a centre-right think tanks, think tank and advocacy group in the United Kingdom. Its goal is to promote coherent and practical policies based on its founding principles of: free markets, "small state," lo ...
NATIONAL BANK OF BELGIUM, August 2004 Working Paper on Macroeconomic and Monetary policy-making at the European Commission 1957 to 1969
{{European Commission
European Commissions