Karel De Gucht

Karel De Gucht
European Commissioner for Trade
Incumbent
Assumed office 9 February 2010
Preceded by	Benita Ferrero-Waldner (Trade and Neighbourhood Policy)
European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid
In office 17 July 2009 – 9 February 2010
Preceded by	Louis Michel
Succeeded by	Andris Piebalgs (Development) Kristalina Georgieva (International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response)
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office 18 July 2004 – 17 July 2009
Prime Minister	Guy Verhofstadt Yves Leterme Herman Van Rompuy
Preceded by	Louis Michel
Succeeded by	Yves Leterme
Personal details
Born	27 January 1954 (1954-01-27) Overmere, Belgium
Political party	Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats
Spouse(s)	Mireille Schreurs
Children	Frédéric Jean-Jacques
Alma mater	Free University of Brussels, Dutch
Profession	Lawyer Professor
Website	Official website

Karel Lodewijk Georgette Emmerence De Gucht (born 27 January 1954) is a Belgian politician who has been the European Commissioner for Trade since 2010. Previously, he was Belgium's Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2004 to 2009 and then European Commissioner for Development & Humanitarian Aid from 2009 to 2010.

De Gucht was also chairman of the Flemish Liberals and Democrats (VLD), a Belgian political party, for a time. In January 2004 he was forced to step down as chairman and was temporarily replaced until after the elections of 4 June by Dirk Sterckx. The reason for his resignation was a conflict between Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt and him about a proposal to give non-citizen immigrants the right to vote in municipal elections, which De Gucht opposed. The conflict severely damaged the party's reputation, as reflected in the 2004 Belgian regional elections results.

Life and career

Born at Overmere, De Gucht was elected to the Federal Parliament during the general elections on 18 May 2003. He was a member of the Flemish Parliament 1999–2003 and a member of the European Parliament 1995–1999.

Although elected to the Flemish Parliament and European Parliament in the elections of June 2004 he decided to take up neither seat and instead he was appointed the Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs on 18 July 2004.

On a trip to Africa in late 2004, De Gucht sparked a diplomatic row when he said that "there is a problem with the political class in Congo" and questioned their ability to tackle corruption.

In June 2005, De Gucht caused a minor diplomatic spat with the Netherlands, when he referred to the Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende as "a mix between Harry Potter and a rigid bourgeois without charisma" in an interview with the popular Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws.

In December 2006, De Gucht condemned the International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust, organised in Iran.

For 2006, De Gucht was the Chairman-in-Office of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

In a 2007 interview with Flanders Info, he said the following about the Lisbon Treaty: "The aim of the Constitutional Treaty was to be more readable; the aim of this treaty is to be unreadable [...] The Constitution aimed to be clear, whereas this treaty had to be unclear. It is a success." (1)

In November 2008, while De Gucht was a minister in the federal government, he was accused of insider trading in the case of the near-bankruptcy and subsequent nationalization and sale of Fortis Bank. On 3 October 2008, his wife, Mireille Schreurs, and brother-in-law sold their shares in Fortis Bank, after a governmental crisis meeting to deal with the precarious financial situation of the bank, and hours before the public announcement that the Dutch arm of the bank would be nationalized and the partly nationalized Belgian and Luxembourg branches sold to BNP Paribas. An annonymous complaint was received by the Belgian Banking, Finance and Insurance Commission alleging De Gucht's wife sold €500,000 worth of Fortis shares. De Gucht acknowledges his wife and brother-in-law sold their mother's shares in Fortis Bank on the date in question for a smaller amount than alleged, but denies that any insider trading was involved. He also points out that he personally lost €85,000 as a result of the nationalization and sale, and that his son, Jean-Jacques De Gucht, and mother kept their shares in the failing bank. The Ghent public prosecutor ultimately decided not to pursue an investigation in the matter stating "there is nothing to indicate that Mr De Gucht encouraged his wife, brother-in-law or any third party to sell their Fortis shares quickly." In 2009, he denounced statements by Pope Benedict XVI which claimed that condoms promoted AIDS, describing the remarks as "unacceptable" and adding that he could "not understand how an intelligent person can say something like that."

On 29 May 2009 he candidly classified his former party colleague Jean-Marie Dedecker as a libertarian opportunist in a TV interview on Flemish public television (De Keien van de Wetstraat).

Controversy

In an interview with the Belgian Flemish public radio VRT about the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and the September 2010 Washington talks, De Gucht expressed his scepticism about the process stating:

"Do not underestimate the Jewish lobby on Capitol Hill. That is the best organised lobby, you shouldn't underestimate the grip it has on American politics – no matter whether it's Republicans or Democrats.

He continued

"Don't underestimate the opinion … of the average Jew outside Israel. There is indeed a belief – it's difficult to describe it otherwise – among most Jews that they are right. And a belief is something that's difficult to counter with rational arguments. And it's not so much whether these are religious Jews or not. Lay Jews also share the same belief that they are right. So it is not easy to have, even with moderate Jews, a rational discussion about what is actually happening in the Middle East. It's a very emotional issue."

The European Jewish Congress (EJC) expressed outrage, describing the remarks as antisemitic and demanding an apology and a retraction from De Gucht. De Gucht responded with the following statement:

"I gave an interview yesterday to the Flemish radio. I was also asked about the Middle East peace talks. I gave my personal point of view. I regret that the comments that I made have been interpreted in a sense that I did not intend. I did not mean in any possible way to cause offense or stigmatize the Jewish Community. I want to make clear that anti-Semitism has no place in today’s world and is fundamentally against our European values."

De Gucht's remarks made it on the list of the Simon Wiesenthal Center of the "2010 Top Ten Anti-Semitic Slurs"

External links

• Karel De Gucht Official Media Gallery
• Official website
• Since February 2010 European Commissioner for Trade
• 2009–2010 European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid

References

• Brusselsjournal.com

Political offices
Preceded by Louis Michel	Minister of Foreign Affairs 2004–2009	Succeeded by Yves Leterme
	Belgian European Commissioner 2009–present	Incumbent
	European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid 2009–2010	Succeeded by Andris Piebalgs as European Commissioner for Development
		Succeeded by Kristalina Georgieva as European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response
Preceded by Benita Ferrero-Waldner as European Commissioner for Trade and Neighbourhood Policy	European Commissioner for Trade 2010–present	Incumbent