Hallstein

During the 1960s French President Charles de Gaulle advocated a “Europe of States” and strongly opposed European Commission President Walter Hallstein’s push for more centralization.

Despite concerns elsewhere in Europe about Berlin’s growing power in Europe, with Germans in senior EU jobs, the only German to run the Brussels’ executive was Walter Hallstein in the late 1950s, but who had far less power than today’s Commission chief.

History further Walter Hallstein, the first President of the Commission The President of the European Commission was established in 1957 with the European Commission.

These were markedly less supranational than the previous communities, due to protests from some countries that their sovereignty was being infringed (however there would still be concerns with the behaviour of the Hallstein Commission ).