he was appointed a Vice-President of the European Commission, which was the first Commission presided over by Jacques Delors. Marín was given the portfolio of Social Affairs, Education and Employment – subjects which until his arrival (the mandate of the first Delors Commission had begun the previous year in 1985) had been handled by Peter Sutherland. Although Marín was responsible for a number of important initiatives (for example, he was the Commissioner responsible for the presentation of the proposal for the Erasmus Programme, which still runs today and has acquired iconic status as a symbol of European integration), in many ways his initial priority was the successful integration of Spain into the life of the European Communities. Marín was reappointed into the second Delors Commission from 1989–1992, again as vice-president but this time with a portfolio which interested him more: development cooperation and the Common Fisheries Policy. Although these two may seem very disparate, the link between them lies in the fact that the fishing fleets of European Community Member States fished traditionally in the waters of many developing countries (in particular, the substantial Spanish fishing fleet did so) and in this period negotiations over compensation to those developing countries became inevitably linked to the European Community's wider development policy. During this mandate, Marín interested himself in relations with Africa and travelled widely there. Marín was appointed in due course to the third Delors Commission (1993–1994) with responsibility for development and cooperation, economic external relations with southern Mediterranean countries, Latin America, Asia, African, Caribbean and Pacific countries, and humanitarian aid. Marín's final term in the European Commission was in the Santer Commission from 1995 until 1999. Among the changes brought by the Maastricht Treaty was the election of Commission Vice-Presidents by Commission members (they had formerly been nominated by European Community Governments jointly). Marín was one in a field of four candidates for two Vice-President posts, and was elected behind Leon Brittan, defeating Édith Cresson and Martin Bangemann. His initial portfolio in this mandate was External relations with Southern Mediterranean countries, the Middle East, Latin America and Asia (except Japan, China, South Korea, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) including development aid; in this period difficulties in implementing the EU's "Mediterranean strategy" under his leadership began to lead to complaints -never confirmed- of incompetence and of fraud. In late 1998 charges of incompetence, cronyism, nepotism and fraud against the European Commission