03/01/2005 (Agence Europe) - Jean-Claude Eeckhout, Special Adviser to the European Commission, spoke during a workshop at the European University Institute in Florence on 2 and 3 December 2004 of "the Luxembourg Compromise Forty Years after". Mr Eeckhout, who has been a European official since 1964, recalls the power struggle in 1965 between Paris and the Hallstein Commission (on the subject of the latter's proposals about the funding of the Common Agricultural Policy and the strengthening of the European Parliament's budgetary decision power), which had led to the "empty chair policy" of France - which had deserted the Council meetings - to finally reach the "Luxembourg Compromise" on 29 January 1966. Mr Eeckhout stressed that "the Luxembourg Compromise is still with us - unofficially and in practice rather than enshrined in the legislation. The search for consensus is, I believe, a constant concern" (of the EU Member States). We recall that, what one calls the "Luxembourg Compromise" is a formula that had prevented the crisis due to the French refusal to apply the provisions of the Rome Treaty from being prolonged, providing for the Council decision from 1966 to be taken by majority. The fact that there was disagreement noted between France and its six partners meant that "when major interests are at stake, the discussion should continue until agreement has been reached unanimously".