In 1965 France, incensed by Commission President Hallstein's proposals, announced it would not attend Council meetings until it had its way. We take a look back at the crisis of the empty chair.

History: The Empty Chair Crisis

THE 'EMPTY CHAIR' CRISIS -  30 JUNE 1965.

but when the dispute finally broke out  at midnight on 30 June 1965,

it lead to a crisis the new European  Community had not witnessed before.

The revolutionary idea  of a supranational

common agricultural market,  independently financed and controlled,

was too revolutionary  for one Member State.

France and its President De Gaulle  put on the brakes.

Carlo Casini is chairman of the EP's  Committee on Constitutional Affairs.

I was 30 years old at the time  but I remember the facts very well.

meaning France's absence  from the Council of Ministers,

seemed to spell  the end of the initial project

that De Gasperi  had been an important part of.

The EEC's foreign ministers  had been discussing for three days

the proposal  of Commission President Hallstein.

Before the end of the French presidency  at midnight on 30 June,

a solution should have been found,  but it was not.

Italy, Germany, Belgium,  Holland and Luxembourg

Instead foreign minister  Maurice Couve de Murville announced

France would not participate  in Council meetings until further notice.

György Schöpflin worked at London's  Royal Institute for International Affairs.

De Gaulle understood that this  was going to have serious implications

for, I suppose, the gloire,  the authority of France.

Hallstein's vision of the Commission's  own resources for financing the CAP,

to be controlled  by the European Parliament,

and of Council decisions  by qualified majority,

was a move towards federalism  that De Gaulle could not tolerate.

France's chair in the Council  remained empty for six months.

January 1966: Luxembourg's presidency  makes a first attempt at reconciliation.

France suffered economically  from blocking the agricultural market.

De Gaulle understood that  French fingerprints are all over the EU -

or the EEC, as it was then - and that it  was in France's interest to stay there.

But he was reshaping it,  and I think he succeeded in that.

With the 'Luxembourg compromise'  CAP's self-financing was postponed

as well as the budgetary control  of the EP.

The Member States also  received an informal veto right

when a majority decision might affect  crucial national interests.

The crisis was over. But the federalists'  dream had suffered a damaging setback.

Today we remember the crisis  of the empty chair - and we're pleased.

Because today not only that chair  but all six chairs are occupied.

Today we have 27 occupied chairs,  and I hope that there will be even more.