Talk:President of the European Commission

This is a useful start and a good framework to place names in a historic series. Please note that three European Communities have or had presidents if one includes the Coal and Steel Community High Authority. Their function is both technical and political in the broadest sense, though it should not according to the treaties up to Nice, be party political. The colleges have members who are not defined by nationality or political party. The Commissions were to be honest brokers for Europe. The ECSC had one co-opted member. Members were not allowed to take any paying or non-paying job in the sector for three years after they left office. The EEC treaty says that any nationality cannot have more than two members, and that includes Luxembourg. There is nothing about France or Germany having two members. Commission Members have in contrast to bad political practice or abuse to be independent of governments, and by implication political parties. We should firstly define what the treaties say. Secondly say what governments do which is quite often in violation of the treaties. The early members of the Commissions were ordinary, non-political citizens. Jean Monnet, first president of the High Authority never had a party card. Hallstein was a former Law professor, Louis Armand, first president of Euratom was an engineer. These three communities existed separately until 1967. That is there were three Commission Presidents. The posts of Commission Members are open to all citizens. The treaties define how they should be chosen. Only 2 per cent of the population have party cards but this 2 per cent is now dominating the choice of Commission members, because governments are not choosing the most independent, experienced candidates. There are many European NGOs who have members with practical experience and independence. According to the treaty these should be considered once the governments revert to the principles, letter and spirit of the treaties at the origin of the EU and words of the present Nice Treaty. The major conflict with Gaullist France involved far more than sketched here. Hallstein called de Gaulle's attacks the most destructive act in the free world since Hitler. De Gaulle's pro-European ministers had resigned; de Gaulle vetoed British and other candidates without even discussing it in Cabinet. etc The Dutch under Luns wanted to get direct elections to Parliament as required in the 1951 Paris Treaty. The resolution of the 'empty chair' made the Five timorous of developing democratic measures written in the treaties. Robert1886 (talk) 19:49, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

There is no need to have an article called List of . . . when the list is short and there is no separate article saying what the President of the Commission is. List articles only make sense if there is already an article on the post separately. In addition the list name created an unreliable double direct. FearÉIREANN 00:06, 13 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Thorn's party

I agree with User:Iota and go further. Thorn's party was, and still is, affiliated to the European Liberal and Democrats group in the European Parliament. Of course it should be yellow. David Cannon 01:53, 26 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Roy Jenkins, Brussels.jpg

Image:Roy Jenkins, Brussels.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot (talk) 21:05, 26 November 2007 (UTC)