De Gaulle accused the first Commission president of acting like a head of state
In 1965 Walter Hallstein, the first head of the European Commission, pushed plans that would hand Brussels its own money and strip France of a veto. Charles de Gaulle charged him with behaving like a head of state, withdrew France from the council and triggered the empty chair crisis.
The president of the European Commission runs the EU's executive and chairs a College of Commissioners, handing out portfolios and able to reshuffle or dismiss members. Since the Commission alone may draft EU legislation, the job carries real agenda-setting power. Created in 1958, the post runs for five years: the European Council nominates a candidate and the European Parliament elects them. Ursula von der Leyen became the 13th holder on 1 December 2019 and was re-elected on 18 July 2024.
The role's authority has swung widely. Hallstein used the European Court of Justice to make national governments take the Commission seriously, but his confrontation with de Gaulle ended when the council declined to renew his term, though the dispute itself was settled by the Luxembourg compromise. Jean Rey secured the Community's own revenue in 1970, and in 1977 Roy Jenkins became the first president to attend a G7 summit. Then the oil shocks of the 1970s pushed integration down the list, and the era of eurosclerosis left presidents such as Gaston Thorn with little sway.
Jacques Delors changed that. Arriving from 1985 at a low point of Europessimism, he rallied members behind the single market and then pressed for economic, monetary and political union. He inherited a president seen as first among equals and left an unquestioned leader; later treaties confirmed the power to allocate portfolios and force out errant commissioners, and the press hailed his successor Romano Prodi as Europe's first prime minister. Parliament grew stronger too, and in 1999 it forced the entire Santer Commission to resign.
Selection has slowly become more parliamentary. The 1993 Maastricht treaty gave MEPs a say, which they read as a veto, formalised at Amsterdam; Nice replaced unanimity in the council with a qualified majority. Critics still decry deals struck behind closed doors: Liberal leader Graham Watson likened the 2004 bargaining that produced José Manuel Barroso to a carpet market. Barroso delivered the first annual State of the Union speech to Parliament on 7 September 2010.
Source: President of the European Commission
