Delors Commission

The Delors Commission was the administration of Jacques Delors, the eighth President of the European Commission. Delors presided over the European Commission for three terms (though the last one lasted for around a year). The first term lasted from 1985 to 1988, the second until 1992 and the final one until 1994, making Delors the longest serving president, and his Commission is also seen as the most successful at advancing European integration. It was the only Commission to serve three times, and Delors served five two-year terms (as they were then). The third Commission was the first Commission of the European Union, the Maastricht Treaty having come into force in 1993.

The European Commissions led by Jacques Delors are regarded by some as the most successful in the European Union's history at advancing integration, Delors himself became an icon of Euro-federalists and widely hated by Eurosceptics, especially in Britain.

Delors entered office when eurosclerosis was at its height. The slow pace of enlargement, lack of democracy and economic problems caused that negative and apathetic attitudes to the Community were high. The preceding Thorn Commission was unable to exercise its authority to any meaningful extent in the face of the British vetoes on EU projects to force a more favourable agreement for it on the Community budget. Delors had previously been one of the architects of the agreement at Fontainebleau, which secured the UK rebate, and Delors intended that the settling of the budget issue should herald a new era of European integration.

Following Delors' arrival in Brussels, he visited the various member states and found the same complaint that Europe reacted too slowly to issues, but did find common agreement on the single market, with its business and cultural meaning, and hence Delors placed it as his main priority with a date for its achievement: 1992 (Objectif 1992). Despite his modern reputation he was criticised by federalists for not going far enough, even earning criticism from Altiero Spinelli in the European Parliament, but Delors defended his goals as pragmatic stating "we are all slaves to the circumstances". To accomplish his goal of completing the single market, Delors had to master the political system of the community: with any member able to block a proposal in the Council, Delors convinced leaders to introduce Qualified Majority Voting so the procedure could not grind to a halt as it did under the budget disagreement. Thus, Delors set Lord Cockfield, his Internal Market Commissioner, in drafting the legislation. Now, Cockfield's work is seen as highly precise and his knowledge of the system legendary.

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