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1985
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By the mid eighties, the European Community experiences a very intense period, characterised by important debates, remarkable initiatives and progress. Prompted by Spinelli’s project and by the European Parliament’s drive, the European Community finally decides to start up and complete the goal that had been indicated by the founding fathers of the Rome Treaties, that is to create a wide area of free exchange, within which there should be a free circulation of goods, services and capital. In order to realise this project, that could not have been realised in the previous years, a French man- Jacques Delors- reaches the head of the European Commission (we remind you that the European Community was born thanks to the ideas of another great French man, Jean Monnet). Delors had a wider experience in the administration field; he was neither a politician, a technician, nor an expert, but he was a very open-minded person and in particular he had a characteristic that is typical of French people: the ability to formulate a very logical and consistent thought. When Delors reaches the head of the European Commission, he immediately understands that the only way to achieve the goal of a common market is to act on the basis of the three principles that have characterised the history of the European Community all throughout these years. The first principle is to work out a consistent programme. The second principle is to establish a deadline for the implementation of this programme and the third principle is that this programme can be implemented only by using a certain method. So Delors understands that in order to create this wide area within which people, goods, services and capital can freely circulate, a programme had to be worked out and that such programme had to be regulated by certain laws able to overturn the frontiers. A deadline had to be fixed and the one fixed by Delors was the year 1992, 1st January 1992. The third issue consisted in modifying the function of the institutions, wherever the institutions had proved to be unable to implement this programme. This meant to introduce the majority vote system within the Council, to consolidate the powers of the European Parliament and the Commission’s function. All this is discussed, worked out and negotiated during the first years of Delors’ chairmanship and is finally realised in the Single European Act, that is approved by the end of 1985. The Act- enforced in July 1987- allows the implementation of a common market by 1st January 1992. But Delors, being a very open-minded man, makes something more: he understands that this market is something that perhaps citizens would not have loved and therefore he accompanies the realisation of the market with the indication of some very important projects from an economic point of view, in order to allow the European economics to become more competitive with respect to other areas of the world, in particular compared to the United States and Japan. However, Delors relaunches a series of activities, programmes and projects worked out by the previous commissions and by so doing he realises also a series of important options in some other fields within the Community’s competence, such as culture, environment and the relationships with third countries (for example the Mediterranean area); another important thing is the opening of a dialogue between different cultures and religions, a very delicate subject, for which all of us know that the role of the European Union is essential in order to create an area of freedom and peace not only in Europe, but also in the Mediterranean countries.
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