Santer Commission

Santer Commission
2nd Commission of the European Union
Date formed	23 January 1995 (1995-01-23)
Date dissolved	15 March 1999 (1999-03-15)
History
Election(s)	1994 European Parliament election
Predecessor	Delors Commission
Successor	Prodi Commission

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v t e

The Santer Commission (sahn-TEHR) was the

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,

Being seen as the "second choice" weakened Santer's position, with the European Parliament approving him only by a narrow majority.^[1] He himself admitted that he "was not the first choice – but to become Commission president was not my first choice either."^[2] 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.^[1]

Early work

The Santer Commission oversaw the development of the

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.^[1]

Santer, desiring a quotable slogan for his administration, stated his Commissions aim would be "to do less, but do it better" (a slogan adopted and adapted by many since). Although just a sound bite, it struck a chord for some thinking the Community needed a rest after the new treaties and the euro, even if the nature of the Community itself requires movements and new projects to keep it busy.^[2] However, during 1998 the commission began to lose authority due to management criticisms from the Parliament.^[1]

Budget controversy

The

Following negotiations, including national governments pressuring their MEPs,[5] the Parliament met to vote on the resolutions on 14 January 1999. It accepted the PES resolution and turned down a censure motion 293 to 232. A Committee of Independent Experts was set up with its members appointed by the political leaders in Parliament and the commission.^[8] A number of high-profile figures^[10] were appointed and President Santer agreed to "respond" to its findings.^[5] The report was produced on 15 March 1999 and was presented to the Commission and Parliament. It largely cleared most members, aside from Cresson, but concluded that there was growing reluctance of the Commissioners to acknowledge responsibility and that "It was becoming increasingly difficult to find anyone who had the slightest sense of responsibility."^[8]

In response to the report, the PES withdrew their support from the Commission^[8] and joined the other groups stating that unless the Commission resigned of its own accord, it would be forced to do so.^[11] So, on the night of 15 March, Santer announced the mass resignation of his Commission.^[8] The morning following the resignation, against the recommendation of his advisors, Santer attacked the conclusions of Committee.^[11] The report was seen to be even in criticising not only PES members but also the workings of the Commission itself. It also exposed the situation that neither Parliament, nor the President, could force the resignation of individual Commissioners as they could only be 'recalled' by national governments. The French government refused to recall Cresson,^[5] who refused to resign of her own accord, which sparked the need for a mass resignation. Commissioner Mario Monti criticised this, stating that "This Commission has collectively resigned, I believe, not because of collective responsibility but because certain members of it preferred not to take their own individual responsibilities."^[11] Édith Cresson went before the European Court of Justice and, in July 2006, was found guilty but was not stripped of her pension.^[12] 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.^[2]

Repercussions

The immediate effect was that the politically weakened Commission was unable to react to the beginning of the Kosovo War and the close of the Agenda 2000 negotiations. The crisis had compounded the already reduced powers of the Commission in favour of the Parliament's legislative power, the council's foreign policy role and the ECB's financial role. However the change with Parliament was the most profound, the previous permanent cooperation between the two bodies came to an end with the shift in power.^[13]

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

The reappointment of some of these members showed that individual Commissioners still maintained their own reputations despite the massive loss of face of the institution as a whole, while Cresson would have never been able to have been reappointed. The Commission itself suffered from a loss of trust and reputation, only compounded by the post-Delors mood. Prodi had to deal with increased euroscepticism which helped bring down the Santer Commission. Since the end of the Delors era, pro-integrationism had given way with greater concern about the commission's powers. By just 2000 the Council curbed the commission's powers once more when they believed Prodi overstepped his remit.[13]

College

The Commission college had 20 members (two for the largest five member states, one each for the remainder) and included Commissioners from new member states Sweden, Finland and Austria. Had Norway not rejected EU membership in 1995, their Commissioner would have been

Portfolio(s)	Commissioner	State	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	Luxembourg	CSV EPP
OECD and WTO	Leon Brittan	United Kingdom	Con. ED
Mediterranean , Latin America and the Middle East	Manuel Marin	Spain	PSOE PES
Customs and Taxation	Mario Monti	Italy	independent
Agriculture & Rural Development	Franz Fischler	Austria	ÖVP EPP
Competition	Karel Van Miert	Belgium	SP PES
Economic & Financial Affairs Inc. Credit and Investments, the Statistical Office and Monetary Matters (with the President)	Yves-Thibault de Silguy	France	independent
EESC	Pádraig Flynn	Ireland	FF AEN
ECHO	Emma Bonino	Italy	ELDR
Environment and nuclear security	Ritt Bjerregaard	Denmark	SD PES
Information & Telecommunications Technologies	Martin Bangemann	Germany	FDP ELDR
Transport, including TEN	Neil Kinnock	United Kingdom	Labour PES
Tourism	Christos Papoutsis	Greece	PASOK PES
Anti-fraud and Relations with the European Ombudsman .	Anita Gradin	Sweden	SDWP PES
Personnel and Administration	Erkki Liikanen	Finland	SDP PES
Committee of the Regions	Monika Wulf-Mathies	Germany	SPD PES
Education, Training and Youth	Édith Cresson	France	PS PES
Relations with central and eastern Europe, CFSP and the External Service	Hans van den Broek	Netherlands	CDA EPP
Relations with African, Caribbean, Pacific Countries, South Africa and the Lomé Convention	João de Deus Pinheiro	Portugal	PSD EPP
Publications Office and Institutional Questions for the 1996 IGC (with the President)	Marcelino Oreja	Spain	PP EPP

See also

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References