European Diary, 1977-1981

by Roy Jenkins

  I then bolted, before the end of the ceremony, and was escorted by motards to Ciampino. Brussels by 5.00.

  WEDNESDAY, 25 OCTOBER. Brussels.

  Commission for seven hours. A substantial discussion on EMS which Ortoli opened with a speech lasting sixty-five minutes which reduced everything to the level of a very flat plain and greatly underestimated the importance of concurrent studies. I decided to adjourn and go back to it in the afternoon, when I made a short intervention putting a slightly different emphasis on where we were, the dangers of the position and the importance of concurrent studies.

  THURSDAY, 26 OCTOBER. Brussels.

  The first morning of rain for weeks. I saw in succession the President of IBM, then Signora Badua Glorioso, the new Italian Trade Union Chairman of the Social and Economic Committee (very good indeed) and then Robert Stephens, the now elderly diplomatic correspondent of the Observer. I took Christopher Tugendhat to lunch, Chez Christopher appropriately enough, and had an agreeable talk with him. Back for the presentation of six hundred Community medals to those who had served twenty years. An enormous ceremony, it being twenty years after the Treaty of Rome.

  It was also the twentieth anniversary dinner of the European Investment Bank, which sounded rather a ghastly occasion and to which I had reluctantly agreed to go, but which turned out to be agreeable and worthwhile except for, as usual in Belgium, there being too many courses and the service too slow.

  FRIDAY, 27 OCTOBER. Brussels, Bonn and Brussels.

  Avion taxi to Bonn. I did not want to drive three times along the autobahn in twenty-four hours. I regretted the decision as soon as we got to the airport and were told that Bonn was in thick fog. However, we persuaded them to take off. When we got near we could see a thin layer of dense mist just over the Rhine Valley. Until Cologne we were in full sunshine and could see the tops of the hills and even of the spires. However, the pilots went in (the advantages of a small plane) and we suddenly saw the runway about ten feet below us. They flew above it for a bit (presumably to make sure it wasn’t an autobahn) and then came down quite safely. On the ground there was practically no visibility at all, less than 100 metres I would guess, and aeroplanes parked alongside us on the apron were just dim shadows.

  We drove to the Bundeskanzlerei and I saw Schmidt from 10.00 to 11.20. Peripheral matters for fifteen minutes: MTNs, fisheries, free movement of labour in relation to the Greek negotiations, and then had an hour on the EMS. He said the meeting with Callaghan had produced remarkably little; it had been a non-discussion. His assumption now was that the British were not coming in. However, he thought we would certainly get Ireland in and probably Italy too, the latter with wider margins. He was quite forthcoming about what he could do for them on concurrent studies, provided he didn’t have to do it for the non-participant British as well.

  Giscard, he said, was quite firm, the determination on his part very strong. There were difficulties with the Bundesbank and this put a sharp limit on the extent to which he (Schmidt) could move on the basket as opposed to the parity grid; he couldn’t move either on automaticity of intra-marginal intervention. He could win over the Bundesbank he thought, on the question of the back-up resources available (he agreed it must be 25 billion to start with) and on what he might do in the way of concurrent studies, where he was primarily thinking in terms of loans at subsidized rates of interest, mainly through the EIB.

  It was a precise, worthwhile discussion. We also touched on the CAP, on which he thought he could accept a price freeze for German farmers but not an actual reduction in income such as might be involved with a combination of price freeze and reductions of MCAs. Back by avion taxi and into the Berlaymont at 12.45.

  SATURDAY, 28 OCTOBER. Brussels and Bonn.

  By car with Crispin to Schloss Gymnich. A full turn-up of Foreign Ministers, except for Simonet who didn’t arrive until 4.30. A good lunch, but horrible little rooms. Schloss Gymnich is basically a nice place, but it is furnished in such a way as to create maximum inconvenience—absolutely nowhere to put anything, no writing table, only one tiny table covered with flowers and bowls of fruit, which I firmly put outside the door. Equally, the only shelf in the bathroom was covered with costly toilet preparations. Despite the fact that the place is done up in the utmost luxury, with gold taps, etc., it is neither convenient nor elegant.

  A fairly desultory discussion (though some useful business was done) during the afternoon on the Giscard letter, in which there was no tendency to turn it down out of hand, but a substantial desire to get it under control. Several countries were anxious that the Three Wise Men should be Four, and should be the four presidents, i.e., me, Colombo (Parliament), Kutscher (Court) and the President in office of the Council of Ministers. This was supported by Italy, Luxembourg and, more surprisingly, Germany. I was unenthusiastic48 An inconclusive outcome on this. The Dutch, and indeed the Danes for almost opposite reasons, were insistent that the Wise Men should be precluded from recommending an upset in the balance of Community institutions, which was helpful from the point of view of safeguarding the Commission position.

  Then we succeeded in getting a fairly satisfactory compromise solution for a weighted voting formula when the Greeks come in. We got away from the principle of eighteen votes continuing to be a blocking minority, on which the British, the French and the Danes had been trying to insist.49

  Boring conversation at dinner: a sort of review of the world done without any sinews of logic or originality of thought. It would have been regarded as a disgrace in intellectual or journalistic circles in most major capitals. Each Foreign Minister just chipped in with some titbit of information he had picked up about some country, and the whole thing became almost like a shop-girls’ exchange of gossip. ‘And then there’s Iraq. They are carrying on with the Russians. And, Afghanistan, shocking behaviour there too.’ Perhaps such a banal exchange of views has something to be said for it, but not much.

  SUNDAY, 29 OCTOBER. Bonn and East Hendred.

  Session from 9.30 until 11.20, mainly on Africa, but also a long report from Guiringaud on his recent discussions with Gromyko in Paris. Also a return to the Giscard letter. As soon as the meeting was over we helicopted to Wahn, from where I got a lift with David Owen to Northolt. I had a tolerably interesting conversation with him during the journey. He was much better on EMS than the night before, and was generally being extremely friendly. Almost for the first time he asked my advice on something, but, alas, on Africa, on which I am singularly ill-equipped to give him any. East Hendred for lunch, where I started a week’s Toussaints holiday.

  WEDNESDAY, 1 NOVEMBER. East Hendred.

  I spent the whole morning and afternoon writing an Observer article on the EMS, the first article (as opposed to a book review) I had written myself for a long time. Perhaps as a result of unfamiliarity I thought it was better than it was.

  To Oxford to dine in Worcester hall with the Briggs’. A talk with Richard Cobb, remarkable writer on French eighteenth- and nineteenth-century history, before dinner. I was much struck by the change in the undergraduates (perhaps Worcester is traditionally exceptional in this respect) who had an extremely conventional appearance, now looking much more like undergraduates of the thirties than those of the sixties. But they are much less political, or if political more right-wing, than then. The proportion from independent schools is rising quite substantially, owing I fear to the end of the grammar schools and the comprehensive schools not mostly trying for Oxford.

  THURSDAY, 2 NOVEMBER. East Hendred, London and East Hendred.

  To London for a one-and-a-half-hour meeting with Callaghan in Downing Street. On EMS I got the impression that he was not coming in, though I was by no means certain of this. He was genuinely engaged with the subject, genuinely torn in his mind. When I said I appreciated his political difficulties, he rejected this firmly, saying: ‘No, no, if I was convinced it was right I would do it. It isn’t a question of politics.’ But I thought he protested a little too much on this. Pe
rhaps the most interesting thing he said was to ask at the end why I thought that Giscard, without a tremendously strong economy, was very willing to do it. I said, ‘Because France is much more self-confident than Britain. They believe they can make a success of things, whereas we don’t.’ He rather sadly said that perhaps that was right and perhaps he agreed. We covered a few peripheral subjects, with him not unnaturally showing great interest in the CAP and also in budgetary contributions.

  SATURDAY, 4 NOVEMBER. East Hendred.

  Drove to Oxford where I voted (unsuccessfully) for John Sparrow in the Professorship of Poetry election. An unexpectedly large turn-out. I was surprised to meet Anne and Mickey Barnes queuing to vote, also, on the way out, Douglas Jay and Patrick Reilly arriving from All Souls. Douglas was remarkably cool and unfriendly. It is astonishing how his mind is dominated by the one question of Europe which prevents his being friendly even in a casual encounter, the first for nearly two years, despite old friendship.50

  MONDAY, 6 NOVEMBER. East Hendred and Brussels.

  Morning plane (late) to Brussels. EMS lunch speech to a Brussels establishment gathering at the Cercle Gaulois. In the afternoon I recorded a ninetieth birthday television tribute to Monnet.

  That evening I had Finn Gundelach to dine alone, rue de Praetère. He seems less tense than a few months ago. We agreed satisfactorily on the sort of paper we should put in to the European Council. He wants it to be short and firm, and he is quite hard on a price freeze. He had two other points of interest. The first was personalities within the Council of Agricultural Ministers. The one he dislikes most is Ertl,51 with Silkin a strong second. The one he has the highest regard for is van der Stee, the Dutch Minister, and after him the Luxembourgeois and the Italian, Marcora.

  His second interesting point was what the pattern of European agriculture would be if we had no CAP and allowed production to find its own level. Our imports, in his view, from most countries would not be much greater. The North Americans would do all right, the Canadians very well indeed because of hard wheat. Nobody else would achieve much, certainly not the New Zealanders and the Australians. Our level of production would be lower, but this wouldn’t very adversely affect agriculture down to, say, Rome. Southern Italy would do very badly. So would the Celtic fringes. I rather encouraged him to work this out in more detail and put it down on paper.

  THURSDAY, 9 NOVEMBER. Brussels.

  It being the most exquisite, sun-drenched autumn day, I drove myself to the Bois de la Cambre and sat reading and looking at the leaves and the lake for most of the morning. I then went into the office only at 12.30 to see Paul Loby of Agence France Presse. I then joined at short notice a lunch party of Hayden’s at the Cercle Gaulois (my second visit that week) in a rather nice garden room with the sun streaming in. Hayden apparently thought that he was a member of the Cercle Gaulois by virtue of his being a member of Brooks’s, but discovered after inviting his guests that this was not so. However, he managed to get the table by talking about the President’s cabinet. That goes better at a Brussels club than it would in St James’s Street.

  At 7.00, we had Bob Strauss, accompanied by four other Americans, including Ambassadors Alonzo McDonald and Hinton, in for a talk about the waiver dispute.52 A rather successful hour’s talk. We didn’t quarrel but were very firm and kept them on the defensive throughout. Jennifer arrived in Brussels for the first time for a month.

  FRIDAY, 10 NOVEMBER. Brussels.

  The weather still being spectacular, I went for a walk with Jennifer at Groenendaal, and then lunched with her and Crispin at the Chalet de la Forêt.

  Shortly before leaving the office at 7.00, I got ensnarled with Tugendhat who rang up making, as I thought, the most ridiculous fuss about his not being treated properly for the Prince of Wales’s visit. The point was that the subjects which the Prince had asked to be discussed in his meeting with the Commission did not include one which Christopher could naturally introduce. I got rather impatient with him, I think rightly so. It is extraordinary the unbalancing effect which royalty has even on the most normally sensible people. Unfortunately during my testiness I rather forgot that we were dining with the Tugendhats that evening. However, Christopher rose splendidly above the issue at dinner and both he and Julia were totally agreeable and had other interesting people there as they mostly do.

  SATURDAY, 11 NOVEMBER. Brussels.

  My fifty-eighth birthday. Drove to Auvillers-les-Forges just over the French frontier to meet the Beaumarchais’ at the good restaurant there. Unfortunately the weather had changed into cold, freezing mist and the Beaumarchais’ had a dreadful fog-bound drive from Paris. They came back to Brussels with us and the four of us dined alone, rue de Praetère.

  SUNDAY, 12 NOVEMBER. Brussels.

  Took the Beaumarchais’ to Groenendaal for a pre-lunch walk, again in spectacular weather, very cold now, but with perfect sunshine again and the leaves at their very best. This first fortnight in November the leaves have been better than I ever remember them on this side of the Atlantic.

  MONDAY, 13 NOVEMBER. Brussels, Basle and Berne.

  Early train to Basle for lunch with the Central Bank governors and then my Swiss official visit. The train collapsed between Luxembourg and Metz, and we had to get into another extremely cold one before chugging into Basle at 2.35 instead of 1.00. The governors were just finishing lunch but they waited while I ate hurriedly and I had a good discussion with them until about 4.20. Zijlstra,53 the Dutchman in the chair, was very good I thought. Gordon Richardson helpful, as one would expect him to be. Clappier said not a word, a rather useless and ineffective performance for Giscard’s vicar at a rather crucial EMS discussion. The sceptics (predictably) were Baffi54 and Emminger. The Americans, Volcker55 and one other, were quite helpful. It was worthwhile and not as technically formidable as I feared it might be.

  In the afternoon, a beautiful day again in Basle, I went to the Drei Könige Hotel before my lecture at the university at 6.15. This went surprisingly well, although it was not a brilliant lecture, but the large audience received it friendlily. Then a long reception, and then dinner at the Schützenhaus which was where we had lunched. There were brief speeches after dinner, mine willingly given as it was in response to the presentation to me of a spectacular little book—a 1520 edition of the Latin epigrams of Sir Thomas More with a Victorian binding.

  We then drove to Berne, where we were installed in the excellent Bellevue Palais Hotel. Grand Swiss hotels of the first third of this century have a remarkable quality. They are built with the solidity of the Drake in Chicago and furnished with the elegance of the Paris Ritz.

  TUESDAY, 14 NOVEMBER. Berne and Strasbourg.

  An early meeting with Fritz Honegger (effectively Economic Minister) and various members of his staff, including Central Bank people. A quite intense discussion, they showing considerable interest in the EMS and a desire to enter in the future,56 though not to rush it, partly because they suspected, probably rightly, that the French might veto them as they had once vetoed their entry into the Snake.

  Then a joint meeting with the President, Ritschard, and the Foreign Minister. The presidency rotates on I think a two-year basis amongst the Federal Councillors, and Ritschard continues to discharge his normal responsibilities, which in his case are fairly mundane ones, public works, etc. However, he is a rather impressive man. I had quite an interesting discussion with them both. It is extraordinary how they manage linguistically: the President talked in German and was interpreted, the Foreign Minister talked in French and was not. I talked in a mixture of English and French, which the President understood, and indeed he understood some English too, but not completely. Most of the other meetings, however, were satisfactorily conducted in English.

  Two other less pointful meetings and then a lunch given by the President in a seventeenth-century house with a good view. We had drinks on the terrace–it would indeed have been warm enough to have lunched outside in full sunshine; quite extraordinary for 14 November.
I much liked all those I spoke to and indeed found Switzerland surprisingly agreeable, and Berne a particularly attractive town. I had never been there before. Then a press conference, a drive to Basle and a train to Strasbourg.

  THURSDAY, 16 NOVEMBER. Strasbourg and Brussels.

  The weather seems to have broken at last (after six weeks) and I sat and worked in the hotel on a rainy morning until 12.30. Then I took Donald Bruce to lunch. He has a staccato mind, works hard, but there is some curious deficiency. However, he is an effective member of the European Parliament, and having been anti-European says he is now anxious to cooperate. I did an hour’s quite enjoyable question session in the Parliament, and then took an avion taxi back to Brussels, where I arrived in time (i) to go home, (ii) to see the Lancashire Mayors who had come over about textile problems and who were extremely protectionist (but who would not be in their position?), and (iii) to have a 7 o’clock meeting with the new President of Kenya, arap Moi, and then give him dinner. He was more agreeable than interesting. The more memorable man in his team was the very flashily dressed Attorney-General, Njonja, whom I remembered from my visit to Nairobi five years before, who tries to be a sort of black Elwyn-Jones–indeed he had been a pupil of his–though a good deal more flashy.

  FRIDAY, 17 NOVEMBER. Brussels and East Hendred.

  An hour with Dirk Spierenburg, former Dutch diplomat, ex-member of the Coal and Steel Commission, an experienced, urbane, firm figure, whom I have got to be chairman of the external review body for the Commission. 12.30 plane to London. East Hendred at 5.30, where we had the Simonets coming for the weekend. Despite the great efforts of Peter Halsey (my driver) to show them how VIP treatment should really be done at airports, with the hope this might encourage Henri to make Zaventem better, they did not arrive until 9 o’clock.