Posted on 09 December 2014
The private papers of Georges Rencki (* 1926) have been deposited at the Historical Archives of the European Union. Rencki, a high ranking European Commission official of Polish origin, was a close collaborator of Sicco Mansholt, one of the founding fathers of the European Union and the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Rencki also worked at the Directorate-General for Regional Politics.
The deposit consists of approximately ten metres of material covering the years 1947 to 1996, relating to Rencki’s militancy in federalist movements, his collaboration in the 'Directorate General for Agricultural Policy' and the 'Directorate General for Regional Politics'. Amongst others the documents deal with the creation of the ‘Union fédéraliste inter-universitaire’ (UFI), the setting-up of the CAP with particular focus on reactions of Members States’ agricultural producers and their organisations. The documents further deal with the European Commission’s Regional Policy and the University conferences held by Rencki.
The collection comprises also authentic historical audio recordings of Sicco Mansholt and Georges Rencki. The collection includes for example interviews on his engagement in the federalistmovement (1953) and the original recording of meetings by Sicco Mansholt with the Committee of Professional Agricultural Organisations (COPA). The predominant language of the documents is French, whereas English is prevailing in the files reading the Communities' Regional Politics.
At present, the collection undergoes archival treatment and description; the inventory will be published in the online database of the Archives by the end of the year and the paper files will be consultable from January 2015 onwards in the Archives reading room. The thirty year rule on access to EU Institutional archives applies to all internal documents of the European Commission present in the files. The audio recordings will be accessible online on the Historical Archives website.
For information please contact: [email protected]
See also Interviews with Georges Rencki, Programmes of Oral History