Santer Commission

The Santer Commission was the European Commission in office between 23 January 1995 and 15 March 1999. The administration was led by Jacques Santer (former Prime Minister of Luxembourg).

The body had 20 members and oversaw the introduction of the euro. It was cut short when the Commission became the first to resign en masse, owing to allegations of corruption. Some members continued under Manuel Marín until the Prodi Commission was appointed.

Appointment

In 1994, Jacques Delors was due to step down from a successful tenure as President of the European Commission. However, his federalist style was not to the liking of many national governments. Hence, when Jean-Luc Dehaene (the then Prime Minister of Belgium) was nominated as his successor, he was vetoed by the UK on the grounds he was too federalist. Jacques Santer, then-Prime Minister of Luxembourg, was seen as less federalist, for his presidency had earlier proposed the pillar structure. Hence, he was nominated and approved by the European Council on 15 July 1994.

Being seen as the "second choice" weakened Santer's position, with the European Parliament approving him only by a narrow majority. He did, however, flex his powers over the nominations for the other Commissioners. The President gained this power under the Maastricht Treaty that came into force the previous year. On 18 January 1995, he got his Commission approved by Parliament by 416 votes to 103 (a larger majority than expected) and they were appointed by the council on 23 January.

Notably it contributed to the development of the euro and issued a series of green papers based on Commissioner Yves-Thibault de Silguy's work. The commission also developed the euro currency symbol. The euro was established on 1999-01-01. The commission also continued Delors's social agenda, pushed for more powers in that field including tackling unemployment and began proposals for the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy. Towards the end of 1998 the Parliament's Committee on Budgetary Control initially refused to discharge the community's budget for 1996 over what it saw as the arrogance of the Commission in its refusal to answer questions relating to financial mismanagement. Paul van Buitenen, a whistle-blower working in the commission, had sent the Parliament a report alleging widespread fraud and cover ups, stating: "I found strong indications that . . . auditors have been hindered in their investigations and that officials received instructions to obstruct the audit examinations . . . The commission is a closed culture and they want to keep it that way, and my objective is to open it up, to create more transparency and to put power where it belongs – and that's in the democratically-elected European Parliament." In response, the Commission suspended him on half pay for releasing details of an inquiry.

However it eventually supported the discharge 14 to 13 on 11 December, recommending that the plenary support the discharge. It was taken to plenary for debate four days later however the assigned rapporteur publicly went against the committee's official position and urged the plenary to reject the discharge motion. President Santer announced that the commission would treat the vote of discharge as one of confidence. In a vote on 17 December 1998, the Parliament denied the discharge.

In response, on the basis it was tantamount to a vote of no confidence, the President of the intra-national Party of European Socialists (PES), Pauline Green, announced she would put forward a motion of censure. However the PES would vote against its own motion, as there is no method for a motion of confidence. During this period, the Parliament took on an increased government-opposition dynamic, with the PES as a party supporting the commission and the intra-national European People's Party (EPP) renouncing its support and acting as a de facto opposition party to the executive. were appointed and President Santer agreed to "respond" to its findings. Édith Cresson went before the European Court of Justice and, in July 2006, was found guilty but was not stripped of her pension. Cresson today is largely held accountable for the fall of Santer (who went on to serve as an MEP and never fully recovered), and the rest of his Commission.

It was hoped by the leaders in Parliament that such a political challenge would generate useful publicity ahead of the elections, with previous polls producing a low turn out with a perception of the body being powerless. In this respect the affair did generate extensive media attention with the Parliament now seeming 'dramatic'. The committee report also was written in an unusually accessible manner, filled with soundbites. Further more it also drew greater attention from the council to a Parliament willing to exercise its powers. Hence when the Council came in to agree on a new president, it was clear that the candidate had to be acceptable to parliament. and seen as having failed in its duty.

{| class="wikitable sortable"

! Portfolio(s)

! Commissioner

! State

! colspan=2 | Party

|President Secretariat-General, Legal Service, Security Office, Forward Studies Unit, Inspectorate General, Joint Interpreting and Conference Service (SCIC), Spokesman's Service, Monetary Matters (with de Silguy), CFSP (with van den Broek) and Institutional Questions for the 1996 IGC (with Oreja)

|Jacques Santer

|style="text-align:center;" | Luxembourg

| bgcolor="" |

|Vice-President; Commercial Policy and External Relations with North America, Australasia, East Asia, the OECD and WTO

|Leon Brittan

|style="text-align:center;" | United Kingdom

| bgcolor="" |

|Vice-President; External Relations with the Southern Mediterranean, Latin America and the Middle East

|Manuel Marin

|style="text-align:center;" | Spain

| bgcolor="" |

|Internal Market, Services Customs and Taxation

|Mario Monti

|style="text-align:center;" | Italy

|Independent

|Agriculture & Rural Development

|Franz Fischler

|style="text-align:center;" | Austria

| bgcolor="" |

|Competition

|Karel Van Miert

|style="text-align:center;" | Belgium

| bgcolor="" |

|Economic & Financial Affairs Inc. Credit and Investments, the Statistical Office and Monetary Matters (with the President)

|Yves-Thibault de Silguy

|style="text-align:center;" | France

|Independent

|Employment & Social Affairs and relations with the EESC

|Pádraig Flynn

|style="text-align:center;" | Ireland

| bgcolor="" |

|Consumer Policy, Fisheries and ECHO

|Emma Bonino

|style="text-align:center;" | Italy

| bgcolor="" |

|Environment and nuclear security

|Ritt Bjerregaard

|style="text-align:center;" | Denmark

| bgcolor="" |

|Industrial affairs, Information & Telecommunications Technologies

|Martin Bangemann

|style="text-align:center;" | Germany

| bgcolor="" |

|Transport, including TEN

|Neil Kinnock

|style="text-align:center;" | United Kingdom

| bgcolor="" |

|Energy, Euratom Supply Agency, SMEs and Tourism

|Christos Papoutsis

|style="text-align:center;" | Greece

| bgcolor="" |

|Immigration, Justice & Home Affairs, Financial Control, Anti-fraud and Relations with the European Ombudsman.

|Anita Gradin

|style="text-align:center;" | Sweden

| bgcolor="" |

|Budget, Personnel and Administration

|Erkki Liikanen

|style="text-align:center;" | Finland

| bgcolor="" |

|Regional Policy Inc. Cohesion Fund (with Kinnock & Bjerregaard) and relations with the Committee of the Regions

|Monika Wulf-Mathies

|style="text-align:center;" | Germany

| bgcolor="" |

|Research, Science & Technology Joint Research Centre, Human Resources, Education, Training and Youth

|Édith Cresson

|style="text-align:center;" | France

| bgcolor="" |

|Relations with central and eastern Europe, CFSP and the External Service

|Hans van den Broek

|style="text-align:center;" | Netherlands

| bgcolor="" |

|Relations with African, Caribbean, Pacific Countries, South Africa and the Lomé Convention

|João de Deus Pinheiro

|style="text-align:center;" | Portugal

| bgcolor="" |

|Relations with the European Parliament, Culture, Audiovisual Policy, Relations with the European Parliament, Communication, Information, Openness, Publications Office and Institutional Questions for the 1996 IGC (with the President)

|Marcelino Oreja

|style="text-align:center;" | Spain

| bgcolor="" |

References

External links

Committee of Independent Experts, Europa (web portal)

Appointment

See also

References

External links