The Fonds of Nicole Fontaine

Biography

Nicole Fontaine was born in Normandy, France, on 16 January 1942. She received her law degree in 1962 and was awarded both a diploma from the Paris Institute of Political Studies in 1964 and a doctorate in public law in 1969. She was a lawyer and a member of the bar of the department of Hauts-de-Seine.

On a national level, Fontaine was responsible for relations between the private education sector and the public authorities at the Secrétariat général de l'Enseignement catholique (General Secretariat for Catholic Education), in the capacity of legal adviser, then of Deputy Secretary-General from 1972 to 1981 and chief representative from 1981 to 1984.

She was a member of the Conseil supérior de l'Education nationale (National Education Council) from 1975 to 1981 and a member of its standing committee from 1978 to 1981. Between 1980 and 1984 she was a member of the Conseil économique et social (Economic and Social Council).

In June 1984, Nicole Fontaine was elected to the European Parliament. The focus of her work was to bring Europe closer to its people (a citizens' Europe). In that connection, she played a key role in developing the Socrates and Youth for Europe programmes.

In July 1989, she was re-elected and became Vice-President of the European Parliament. In that capacity, she represented the Assembly on the European Parliament - National Parliaments Joint Delegation. 

In January 1994, she was appointed by her political group, the European People's Party, to sit as a permanent member on the Conciliation Committee established by the Maastricht Treaty; the role of that committee was to settle disputes at the end of legislative procedures involving the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament. She also chaired the European Parliament delegation to COSAC (conference of bodies specialising in Community affairs), the forum for cooperation between the national parliaments and the European Parliament.

In June 1994, Nicole Fontaine was re-elected to the European Parliament for a third term of office. She was also re-elected Vice-President and became, by virtue of the number of votes obtained, first Vice-President of the European Parliament. In that capacity, she co-chaired the Conciliation Committee with the President-in-Office of the Council of Ministers.

Nicole Fontaine was re-elected to the European Parliament in June 1999, and was elected President of the European Parliament with an absolute majority in the first round of voting on 20 July 1999. 

In June 2002, she left the European Parliament to serve as Junior Minister for Industry in Jean-Pierre Raffarin's government at the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industry in France. 

In 2004, she was elected to the European Parliament for another term.

Nicole Fontaine passed away in Neuilly-sur-Seine on 17 May 2018.

Political posts held

• 1975-1981: Member of the National Education Council, France
• 1980-1984: Member of the Economic and Social Council, France
• 1984-1989: Elected Member of the European Parliament
• 1989-1994: Re-elected Member of the European Parliament and elected Vice-President of the European Parliament
• January 1994: Became permanent member of the Conciliation Committee
• 1994-1999: Re-elected Member of the European Parliament for a third term
• July 1994: Re-elected Vice-President of the European Parliament, becoming first Vice-President
• January 1997: Confirmed first Vice-President of the European Parliament; co-chaired the Conciliation Committee with the President-in-Office of the Council of Ministers
• 1999-2004: Re-elected Member of the European Parliament
• 1999-2002: President of the European Parliament (elected by a majority of the votes cast in the first round of voting)
• June 2002-March 2004: Junior Minister for Industry in the government of Jean-Pierre Raffarin, France
• 2004-2009: Re-elected Member of the European Parliament

What's in the archives?

The archives of Nicole Fontaine's Office contain over 3,700 items arranged in more than 500 files relating to specific issues and activities that characterised the President's term of office. In addition to hard copy documents, these fonds also contain electronic documents.

Administrative and legal tasks

PE5 P1 A00/ADJU

This group of series comprises documents on relations with the human resources services, in particular the trainees section. The series also includes documents related to work carried out with the Legal Service (organised chronologically and thematically).

Political tasks: internal

PE5 P1 B00/RINT 

This group covers internal policies and consists of three series that correspond to the activity of the Office of the President, particularly notes and mail prepared, received or compiled by the Office and various press reports. A group of documents entitled 'Operation: a currency for Europe' illustrates one of the highlights of Nicole Fontaine's term of office, as do the various files relating to her duties on this subject, grouped together by topic. The second series relates to the organisation of the activities of the Conference of Presidents and the Directorate-General responsible for parliamentary committees and delegations. The third series covers the Office's relations with Members, grouped in alphabetical order.

Political tasks: external

PE5 P1 C00/REXT

This group is related to external policies and comprises a first series on the President's activity as representative of the institution abroad, based on her speeches, which are arranged in chronological order. The next series deals with visits and public relations of the Office of the President, arranged by topic. The third series concerns more specifically Parliament's interinstitutional relations with, inter alia, the European Commission and the European Council. It also includes details of the meetings between the different European institutions. The fourth and fifth series relate to the relations between the Office of the President and the Member States and between the Office and third countries, respectively. The documents, primarily correspondence, are arranged by country or by 'correspondent'. Finally, the last series deals with the topic of international forums, notably the organisation and functioning of the EuroMed Forum.

Reflections of former Presidents of the European Parliament: Nicole Fontaine

Each President of the European Parliament is customarily elected for a brief two-and-a-half year term of office. On taking up their duties, Presidents therefore realise that their term is merely one stage in an on-going process, that when they leave office they will pass on to their successors incomplete business which they have initiated, and that their own personality, national or political sensitivity and personal beliefs should not take precedence over the need for pluralism and diversity in all areas which characterise this unique parliamentary institution.

I was given the exciting opportunity of taking on the Presidency from July 1999 to January 2002 in the transition between two centuries. Our main concerns in that period were to restore harmonious relations with the Commission, following the traumatic resignation of Mr Santer’s team, preparations for the major enlargement in 2004, which would be made possible by the Treaty of Nice, albeit in a less than ideal manner, the successful introduction of the Euro, which a majority of Member States had adopted, the growing awareness of the values uniting a continent of 500 million Europeans, thanks to the adoption of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, and the seismic international impact of the 11 September terrorist attacks.

EP President Nicole Fontaine (C) attends the launch of an exhibition on the Euro.
Photo with Commissioner Pedro Solbes Mira (L) and Christa Randzio-Plath, Chair of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (R) © European Union 2001 – European Parliament

I have, of course, not forgotten the importance of the substantial legislative work done over this period. However, we owe this essentially to Parliament as a whole, which had reached its democratic maturity through the increasing excellence of its Members, the practical organisation of its parliamentary business and the new powers conferred on it by the recent treaties, particularly on co-decision matters.

More specifically, as regards the officials of the European Parliament, and by extension the Members’ assistants, I know of no other similar large institution in which courtesy, respect for other people and their differences, willingness to cooperate and devotion to the common cause beyond national or political allegiances, are as strong, tangible or as enduring.

The more personal touch which I wished to give my Presidency was to ensure, as my predecessors had done, that the European Parliament was perceived within the Union and in the world at large as a leading advocate of universal values and solidarity, of people’s aspirations, in addition to acting as co-legislator for a Community of just under half a billion people.

On first being elected in 1984, my political activities at European level were focused on working towards two objectives: first of all, building an irreversible Union based on peace and progress for all, between all the states and peoples of Europe who wished to be part of this Union, and, secondly, ensuring that this Europe under construction was supported and – I am not afraid to say it – loved by all those hoping to see it develop into more than a mere market without internal borders. This was my consistent objective during my Presidency, even though I would, of course, have liked to do more.

Nicole Fontaine during a session in Strasbourg in October 1984 © European Communities 1984 – European Parliament

From this point of view, there were a large number of striking and emblematic events.

There were the frozen bodies of two Guinean adolescents found in the undercarriage of an aeroplane on arrival at Paris-Roissy from Conakry, only a few days after I took office. They were so eager to reach Europe that they died in doing so but they had prepared a poignant message for me.

There was my first visit abroad, which I decided would be to Kosovo, for whose shameful martyrdom we were collectively responsible for too long.

There was the repeated public condemnation of ETA’s murderous acts perpetuated in the Basque country in Spain, which I visited on seven occasions to express Parliament’s support to that violence-stricken country.

There was the joint visit by Avraham Burg, President of the Knesset, and Ahmed Qurei, President of the Palestinian Legislative Council, on 4 September 2000. Members of our Parliament were deeply marked by their statements in plenary. They were the words of two men who respected each other, held each other in mutual esteem and fervently sought peace for their two countries. Although, to our huge disappointment, the infernal spiral of violence, insecurity and repression resumed in the weeks that followed, the message delivered by these two men of conviction and courage was an intense experience for our Parliament: both of them told us about their profound hope that the European Parliament would become more closely involved in the peace process.

This historic visit was followed by the award of the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to a Palestinian father whose son had been killed in an Israeli raid, and an Israeli mother whose daughter had died in a Palestinian bomb attack, and whose speech brought tears to the eyes of many Members.

There was my visit, a few months earlier, to Israel, Palestine, Jordan and Lebanon, in the same spirit. There was my speech to the Knesset in Jerusalem on that occasion, which, though strongly worded, did not meet with a hostile reception.

There was the first world interparliamentary conference against the death penalty, co-chaired by the European Parliament, in Strasbourg.

There were the street children, the forgotten victims of extreme poverty, whom I went to meet in Ouagadougou.

There was Commander Massoud, whom I had invited to Strasbourg, with the cooperation of General Morillon and the support of the Conference of Presidents, and who was on his first visit to Europe. He had come to ask for help not in waging war, but in making peace. He had also come to warn us of the Taliban danger hanging over the entire region and its close links with Al-Qaeda terrorism. Members of Parliament were impressed by his intelligence, charismatic personality and deep respect for human dignity.

EP President Nicole Fontaine (R) receives Ahmad Shah Massoud (L) in Strasbourg © European Union 2001 – European Parliament

The invitation I had addressed to him was a political recognition of all that this outstanding figure stood for. It expressed our desire to make a contribution to the restoration of peace and freedom in Afghanistan, a country devastated by fanaticism and the murderous folly of the Taliban. The European Parliament was alone in receiving him officially.

Four months later, on 9 September 2001, he was assassinated, and on 11 September, the world was suddenly made aware, through the World Trade Center tragedy, of the horrific danger which terrorism posed to the international community.

Commander Massoud’s visit to our Parliament is still vividly remembered in Europe, as well as among the people of Afghanistan, who will never forget the support which the European Parliament gave to its hero and to its struggle.

There were the three Afghan women, covered from head to toe by their sinister-looking burkas, whom I was able to receive in Strasbourg, giving them an opportunity to express their feeling of isolation.

There were the formal statements to the Heads of State and of Government of the Union at the opening of each European Summit, and in particular in Lisbon in 2000, where I called on them not to allow economic competition to become a jungle in which the weakest sections of society would be sacrificed.

There was, lastly, in December 2001, the privilege I had in Nice, as President of Parliament, to sign the Charter of Fundamental Rights of all the citizens of the European Union, of which Parliament had been the initiator. This text was adapted and signed again by Hans-Gert Pöttering on 13 December 2007 so that it would acquire legal status in the new Treaty on European Union. This event is an extremely significant illustration of the continuity of the work carried out by the Presidents.