1 The European Commission facing crisis: Social, neo-mercantilist and market-oriented approaches (1967-1985) Reference: Laurent Warlouzet, « The European Commission facing crisis: Social, neo- mercantilist and market-oriented approaches (1967-1985) », in European Review of History, 26, 4, 2019, pp. 703-722. Author Laurent WARLOUZET laurent.warlouzet@sorbonne-universite.fr Laurent Warlouzet is professor of history at the University of Littoral-Côte d’Opale. A former postdoctoral fellow at the European University Institute of Florence (EUI), and at the London School of Economics (LSE), he is a specialist in the relationship between Western Europe, European integration and Globalisation. He has just published a monograph on this theme: Laurent Warlouzet, Governing Europe in a Globalizing World. Neoliberalism and its Alternatives following the 1973 Oil Crisis (London, Routledge, 2018), and a review essay on EU studies in history: 'European integration history: Beyond the crisis’, in Politique Européenne, 2, 44, 2014/2018, pp. 98-122. Website on academia: https://sorbonne-universite.academia.edu/LaurentWarlouzet Abstract The European Commission of the European Economic Community (EEC) has occupied a major role in the organization of European economic cooperation, but it has often been overlooked by historians. Drawing on recent literature and on an exploration of the Commission’s archives (as well as the national archives of the three largest member states), this contribution aims to examine the three visions developed by this institution to tackle the crisis of capitalism between 1967 and 1985. Some commissioners, such as the Dutch Hendrikus (Henk) Vredeling, fostered a social agenda, aimed at favoring the redistribution of wealth in Europe, and the protection of the weakest. Others, such as the Belgian Etienne Davignon defended a neo-mercantilist approach in order to maximise European industrial output. And still others, such as the French Raymond Barre, defended market-based solutions. In 1985, Delors became President of the Commission and put forward a new synthesis of those three approaches. With this threefold structure (social, neo-mercantilist, and market-oriented), this article advances three claims. First, it will demonstrate that the Commission was not a monolithic actor, but rather divided along many competing lines. Second, it will show that some prominent commissioners developed their own economic agenda, which was sometimes separate from that of their country’s governments. Third, this article will circumvent the current dominant teleological narrative, which ascribes a neoliberal streak to the entire history of European integration, and accomplish this by showing that the Treaty of Rome may be interpreted in varied ways. The neo-mercantilist category is useful to show that many actors were unconvinced by market-based regulations, without being socialists or social democrats. In sum, this contribution aims to explore the full range of economic solutions envisioned to overcome economic crises.