Jenkins: death of a passionate pro-European

Date: 09/01/03

By Dick Leonard

ROY Jenkins, former president of the European Commission who died on Sunday 5 January at the age of 82, played for half a century an important role in British and European politics.

He was a bad party man, but a fierce fighter for the causes in which he believed. Two were pre-eminent. One was to make his native land a more civilised country in which to live. When he became British Home Secretary for the first time, in 1965, he pushed forward a series of social and libertarian reforms.

These included laws on divorce, homosexual relations, abortion and the abolition of theatre censorship, which were mocked by his right-wing critics but seen by most as letting a draught of fresh air into what had become a musty society.

Roy's second cause was Europe. Without his ceaseless advocacy, it is doubtful whether Britain would have become a member of the European Community. He did not have an easy time as Commission president from 1977-81, but the overall balance was certainly positive. I would rate him third in terms of effectiveness after Hallstein and Delors. His major achievement was to launch the European Monetary System, the forerunner of EMU and the euro.

He was a man of wide interests. A talented author, whose biographies of Gladstone and Churchill will long be read with profit and pleasure, he also had a great gift for friendship, and was kind, steadfast and loyal.

Report of the death of Roy Jenkins, former president of the European Commission, on 5 January 2003.