Thatcher’s plan to make Brussels more democratic
MARGARET Thatcher vowed to transform the European Commission into a professional civil service, official archives showed.
The former British prime minister told the then taoiseach Charles Haughey that the Brussels- based organisation was totally non-democratic.
She said: ‘The Commission was necessary for the European Community to start off but it is a totally non- democratic power structure now. It is not responsible to the European Parliament or to any other parliament.
‘What we need there is a proper professional civil service to serve the Council of Ministers.’
Mrs Thatcher added: ‘We must metamorphose it into that.’
A verbatim note of her comments were contained in an official Dublin file from June 1990. She said the European Parliament should have powers of i nspection of the Commission. At that time, the Soviet Union’s influence over the Eastern bloc communist states was collapsing. Mrs Thatcher said: ‘Eastern Europe is trying to get to a democratic system. And who is dealing with them? It is now Delors – a mere appointee.’ Jacques Delors was the president of the European Commission and played a key role in the design of the euro and creation of the Single Market. An Irish official present at the meeting noted of Mrs Thatcher: ‘She was totally opposed to the Belgian/ German proposition that powers of co-decision be given to Parliament.’ He also recorded her opposition to conferring powers on the European Central Bank. During talks with her Irish counterpart, Mrs Thatcher also said anti-apartheid s anctions on South Africa were ‘irrelevant’ as countries whi c h purported to apply t hem ignored them.
‘We need a proper civil service’