The first and, from now on, sole British President of the European Commission (1977-1981), Roy Jenkins, surrounded by his cabinet (private office), indelibly marked the institution’s way of working. Thanks to the significant description and digitisation effort of the Historical Archives Service of the European Commission (AHCE), the archives of his cabinet are now available for consultation on-line as well as in the reading room of the HAEU.
As active on the front of external relations and enlargement as he was on the improvement of the Commission’s communication (notably in the context of the first direct universal suffrage of the European Parliament) and its internal reorganisation, the fonds illustrates the extensive work of Roy Jenkins, convinced European, throughout his mandate.
The archives mainly relates to the presidential function, the actions of the Commission, inter-institutional relations, enlargements, and cover a variety of policies: economy, industry development, competition, social policy, agriculture and fisheries, energy, regional policy, and external relations.
The filing plan is structured according to the policy areas. The fonds includes various types of documents, including reports, minutes, correspondence, speeches, and interviews. The archives also contain notes and reports of diplomatic visits, conferences, and ceremonies. The materials are mainly in English and French.
The archival fonds of President Roy Jenkins’s Cabinet has been established during the four years of his mandate 1977-1981 before being transferred to the Historical Archives Service of the European Commission in Brussels at the end of the 1980s. The fonds’ inventory was written in 2018 and the archives fully digitised before being sent in 2021 to the Historical Archives of the European Union in Florence for their long-term preservation and communication to the public.
Consult the inventory of the Roy Jenkins Cabinet archives