Files recently transferred to Florence concerning the office of the former President of the European Parliament Enrique Barón Crespo have been inventoried and are now available for consultation at the Historical Archives of the European Union (HAEU). Users may explore the file inventory in the Archives’ online database and the files may be consulted in person at the HAEU’s reading room in Florence. All 1129 files of this new deposit by the European Parliament are open to the public.
Enrique Barón Crespo, Spanish politician and former Member of the European Parliament, is an economist and human rights lawyer by training. He also served as the President of the European Parliament from July 1989 until January 1992. The files shed light on Barón Crespo’s activities during his momentous tenure, which saw the dissolution of Yugoslavia and Soviet Union, as well as the intergovernmental negotiations leading up to the Treaty of Maastricht, signed shortly after his mandate ended.
The files are divided into four major series: ‘President as a Public Figure’, ‘Presidency of the Parliament’, ‘General Secretariat of the Parliament’, and ‘Representation of the Staff and Political Groups’. They cover meetings and official visits from different political personalities, and shed light on internal, interinstitutional and interparliamentary relations; international and public relations; media activities, and Barón Crespo’s activities vis à vis European citizens.
This new deposit informs political, administrative and legal perspectives on the European Parliament Third Legislature fonds and complements the private papers of Enrique Barón Crespo and the series of oral history interviews deposited at the HAEU.
Consult the holdings of the Enrique Barón Crespo cabinet here.
Photo: Press conference by the newly elected President of the European Parliament Enrique Barón Crespo, 25/07/1989. © Communautés Européennes 1989