THE VEDEL GROUP HAD THE DISTINCTION OF BEING THE FIRST such working party set up by the Commission of the European Communities involving the ten countries of the proposed enlarged Community. The membership of fourteen reflected the model for the new Commission, one from the smaller and two from the larger countries. The decision was taken by the Commission on 22 July 1971 to set up a working party of independent experts to advise it in its preparations for the summit the following year, in which one of the headings for discussion by the heads of governments of the ten countries would be the institutions of the Community. The Group first met in October 1971 with a mandate ‘to examine all the implications of extending the powers of the European Parliament’. It reported on 25 March 1972.

As a member of the Group I shall attempt a personal assessment of the political implications of the report. I have not consulted with any of my thirteen colleagues; I do not purport to represent their views, nor are they to be taken as sharing or endorsing in any way my personal analysis in this article.