Editing Roy Jenkins (section)

==President of the European Commission (1977–1981)==
[[File:Koningin Juliana en Roy Jenkins, Bestanddeelnr 929-0833.jpg|thumb|Jenkins (left) as [[President of the European Commission]] with Queen [[Juliana of the Netherlands]] in 1977]]
In an interview with ''The Times'' in January 1977, Jenkins said that: "My wish is to build an effective united Europe. ... I want to move towards a more effectively organized Europe politically and economically and as far as I am concerned I want to go faster, not slower".<ref>'Roy Jenkins: Scaling the peaks', ''The Times'' (5 January 1977), p. 8.</ref> The main development overseen by the [[Jenkins European Commission|Jenkins Commission]] was the development of the [[Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union]] from 1977, which began in 1979 as the [[European Monetary System]], a forerunner of the Single Currency or [[Euro]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.euro-know.org/europages/dictionary/j.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130902172241/http://www.euro-know.org/europages/dictionary/j.html |url-status=usurped |archive-date=2 September 2013 |title=A Concise Encyclopedia of the European Union -J |publisher=Euro-know.org |access-date=25 July 2016}}</ref> His biographer calls Jenkins "the godfather of the euro" and claims that among his successors only [[Jacques Delors]] has made more impact.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 502, p. 538.</ref>

In a speech in [[Florence]] in October 1977, Jenkins argued that monetary union would facilitate "a more efficient and developed rationalisation of industry and commerce than is possible under a Customs Union alone". He added that "a major new international currency" would form "a joint and alternative pillar of the world monetary system" which would lead to greater international stability. Monetary union would also combat inflation by controlling the money supply. Jenkins conceded that this would involve the diminution of national sovereignty but he pointed out that "governments which do not discipline themselves already find themselves accepting very sharp surveillance" from the IMF. Monetary union would also promote employment and diminish regional differences. Jenkins ended the speech by quoting [[Jean Monnet]]'s statement that politics was "not only the art of the possible, but...the art of making possible tomorrow what may seem impossible today".<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 493–494.</ref>

President Jenkins was the first president to attend a [[G8]] summit on behalf of the Community.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.deljpn.ec.europa.eu/union/showpage_en_union.external.g8.php|title=EU and the G8|access-date=25 September 2007|publisher=[[European Commission]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070226165606/http://www.deljpn.ec.europa.eu/union/showpage_en_union.external.g8.php|archive-date=26 February 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref> He received an Honorary Degree (Doctor of Laws) from the [[University of Bath]] in 1978.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.bath.ac.uk/ceremonies/hongrads/|title=Honorary Graduates 1989 to present|publisher=[[University of Bath]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100717061336/http://www.bath.ac.uk/ceremonies/hongrads/|archive-date=17 July 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In October 1978, ''Tribune'' reported (falsely) that Jenkins and his wife had not paid their Labour Party subscription for several years. After this was repeated in the national press, Jenkins' drafted his wife's letter to ''The Times'' that refuted the allegation.<ref name="Campbell505">Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 505.</ref><ref>Jennifer Jenkins, 'A Labour Party subscription', ''The Times'' (20 October 1978), p. 17.</ref> Jenkins blamed the story on a "malicious [[Trotskyism|Trot]] in the North Kensington Labour Party".<ref name="Campbell505"/> Jenkins was disillusioned with the Labour Party and he was almost certain that he could not stand again as a Labour candidate; in January 1979 he told [[Shirley Williams]] that the "big mistake we had made was not to go and support Dick Taverne in 1973; everything had got worse since then".<ref>Roy Jenkins, ''European Diary, 1977–1981'' (London: Collins, 1989), p. 387.</ref>

He did not vote in the [[1979 United Kingdom general election|1979 election]].<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 507.</ref> After the Conservatives won the election [[Margaret Thatcher]] contemplated appointing Jenkins Chancellor of the Exchequer on the strength of his success at cutting public expenditure when he was Chancellor. However, his friend [[Woodrow Wyatt]] claimed that Jenkins "had other and fresh fish to fry".<ref>Woodrow Wyatt, ''Confessions of an Optimist'' (London: Collins, 1987), p. 177.</ref><ref>Sarah Curtis (ed.), ''The Journals of Woodrow Wyatt: Volume Two'' (London: Pan, 2000), p. 64.</ref><ref>John Campbell, ''Margaret Thatcher, Volume Two: The Iron Lady'' (London: Jonathan Cape, 2003), p. 10.</ref>

The Director-General of the BBC, [[Ian Trethowan]], invited Jenkins to deliver the [[Richard Dimbleby Lecture]] for 1979, which he did on 22 November.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 508.</ref> The title Jenkins gave to his lecture, "Home Thoughts from Abroad", derived from a [[Robert Browning]] poem. He delivered it in the [[Royal Society of Arts]] and it was broadcast live on television.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 510–511.</ref> Jenkins analysed the decline of the two-party system since 1951 and criticised the excessive partisanship of British politics, which he claimed alienated the bulk of voters, who were more centrist.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 511–512.</ref> He advocated proportional representation and the acceptance of "the broad line of division between the public and private sectors", a middle way between [[Thatcherism]] and [[Bennism]].<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 512–513.</ref> Jenkins said that the private sector should be encouraged without too much interference to create as much wealth as possible "but use the wealth so created both to give a return for enterprise and to spread the benefits throughout society in a way that avoids the disfigurements of poverty, gives a full priority to public education and health services, and encourages co-operation and not conflict in industry and throughout society".<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 513–514.</ref> He then reiterated his long-standing commitment to libertarianism:

<blockquote>You also make sure that the state knows its place...in relation to the citizen. You are in favour of the right of dissent and the liberty of private conduct. You are against unnecessary centralization and bureaucracy. You want to devolve decision-making wherever you sensibly can. ... You want the nation to be self-confident and outward-looking, rather than insular, xenophobic and suspicious. You want the class system to fade without being replaced either by an aggressive and intolerant proletarianism or by the dominance of the brash and selfish values of a 'get rich quick' society. ... These are some of the objectives which I believe could be assisted by a strengthening of the radical centre.<ref>"Mr Roy Jenkins sees a British political system 'stranded by the receding tide'", ''The Times'' (23 November 1979), p. 5.</ref></blockquote>

''[[The Listener (magazine)|The Listener]]'' reprinted the text along with assessments by [[Enoch Powell]], [[Paul Johnson (writer)|Paul Johnson]], [[Jack Jones (trade unionist)|Jack Jones]], [[J. A. G. Griffith]], [[Bernard Crick]], [[Neil Kinnock]] and [[Jo Grimond]]. They were all critical; Kinnock thought him misguided as Britain had already suffered from centrist rule for thirty years and Grimond complained that Jenkins' clarion call had come 20 years too late.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 515.</ref>

Jenkins' last year as President of the European Commission was dominated by [[Margaret Thatcher]]'s fight for a [[UK rebate|rebate]] on Britain's contribution to the EEC budget.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 526.</ref> He believed that the quarrel was unnecessary and regretted that it soured Britain's relationship with the Community for years.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 534.</ref> In November 1980 Jenkins delivered the Winston Churchill memorial lecture in Luxembourg, where he proposed a solution to the British budgetary question. The proportion of the Community's budget spent on agriculture should be reduced by extending Community spending into new areas where Britain would receive more benefit, such as regional spending. The size of the Community's budget would, in his scheme, be tripled by transferring from the nation states to the Community competence over social and industrial policy.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 535.</ref>