Posted on 17 November 2015
The archival papers of Philip Lowe (PL) are now available for consultation at the Historical Archives of the European Union and an inventory to the collection is published online. The fonds comprises 125 files, covering Lowe’s career in the European Commission.
Lowe joined the Commission in 1973 and has held several positions, including Chef de Cabinet for Commissioners Bruce Milan and Neil Kinnock, Director of Rural Agriculture and Director of the Merger Task Force in the Directorate-General for Competition. He was Director General for Development from 1997 to 2000, where he dealt with relation with ACP states, including the renegotiation of the Lomé Convention, resulting in what would be known as the Cotonou Convention, and with the investigation into ECHO fraud allegations.
In 2002, he was appointed as the first non-German Director General of the Directorate-General for Competition, a position he held until 2010, and a large portion of the documents in the fonds concern his time in this function. These include speeches and articles by Lowe, reports into EU Competition Policy, and notes and reports into cartel and merger cases.
For internal documents of the European Commission the thirty year rule on access to EU Institutional archives applies.
The documents are mostly in English, French and German.
Direct access: Philip Lowe fonds