Paul-Henri Spaak

Paul-Henri Spaak
File:SpaakPH.jpg
1st President of the European Parliament
In office 1952–1954
Preceded by	post created
Succeeded by	Alcide De Gasperi
30th Prime Minister of Belgium
In office May 15 1938 – February 22 1939 March 13 1946 – March 31 1946 March 20 1947 – August 11 1949
Preceded by	Paul-Émile Janson Achille van Acker Camille Huysmans
Succeeded by	Hubert Pierlot Achille van Acker Gaston Eyskens
Personal details
Born	(1899-01-25)January 25, 1899 Schaerbeek, Belgium
Died	July 31, 1972(1972-07-31) (aged 73) Braine-l'Alleud, Belgium
Political party	BSP-PSB
Spouse(s)	Marguerite Malevez (her death) Simone Dear

Paul-Henri Charles Spaak (January 25, 1899 - July 31, 1972) was a Belgian Socialist politician and statesman.

Born in Schaerbeek, Paul-Henri was the son of Paul Spaak, grandson of the Liberal politician Paul Janson and nephew of another Liberal politician, Paul-Émile Janson, who was briefly Prime Minister of Belgium from 1937 to 1938. His mother, Marie Janson, was the country's first female Senator. During World War I, he lied about his age to be accepted in the Army; he subsequently spent two years as a German prisoner of war.

Belgian politics

Spaak studied law at the Free University of Brussels (now split into the Université Libre de Bruxelles and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel) and became a member of the Socialist Belgian Labour Party in 1920. Elected deputy in 1932, in 1935 he entered the government led by Paul Van Zeeland as Minister of Transport. He was several times Minister of Foreign Affairs and four times Prime Minister of Belgium:

• February 1936 - May 1938: Minister of Foreign Affairs in the second cabinet led by Paul Van Zeeland
• May 1938 - February 1939: Prime Minister
• September 1939 - February 1945: Minister of Foreign Affairs in the six government coalitions led by Hubert Pierlot
• February 1945 - January 1946: Minister of Foreign Affairs in the two government coalitions led by Achille Van Acker
• March 13 1946 - March 31 1946: Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs in the shortest-lived Belgian government ever
• March 1946 - August 1946: Minister of Foreign Affairs in the third coalition led by Achille Van Acker
• August 1946 - March 1947: Minister of Foreign Affairs in the government coalition led by Camille Huysmans
• March 1947 - August 1949: Prime Minister (twice) and Minister of Foreign Affairs
• April 1954 - June 1958: Minister of Foreign Affairs in the fourth coalition led by Achille Van Acker
• April 1961 - July 1965: Minister of Foreign Affairs in the coalition government led by Théo Lefèvre
• July 1965 - March 1966: Minister of Foreign Affairs in the coalition government led by Pierre Harmel

Europe

Spaak was an advocate of Belgium's "independence policy" before World War II. He fled to France in May 1940, tried to return to Belgium during the summer even though Minister of Foreign Affairs, but was not allowed in by the Germans. Hence, against his wishes he ended up in Britain.

Spaak became a staunch supporter of regional co-operation and collective security after 1944. While still in exile in London, he promoted the creation of a customs union uniting Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg (see Benelux). In August 1946, he was elected chairman of the first session of the consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe. From 1952 to 1953, he presided the General Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community.

In 1955, the Messina Conference of European leaders appointed him as chairman of a preparatory committee (Spaak Committee) charged with the preparation of a report on the creation of a common European market. The so-called "…Spaak Report" formed the cornerstone of the Intergovernmental Conference on the Common Market and Euratom at Val Duchesse in 1956 and led to the signature, on March 25, 1957, of the Treaties of Rome establishing a European Economic Community and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom). Paul-Henri Spaak signed the treaty for Belgium, together with Jean Charles Snoy et d'Oppuers. His role in the creation of the EEC earned Spaak a place among the Founding fathers of the European Union.

UN and NATO

Spaak gained international prominence in 1945, when he was elected chairman of the first session of the General Assembly of the United Nations. During the third session of the UN General Assembly in Paris, Spaak apostrophized the delegation of the Soviet Union with the famous words: "Messieurs, nous avons peur de vous" (Sirs, we are afraid of you). In 1956, he was chosen by the Council of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation to succeed Lord Ismay as Secretary General. He held this office from 1957 until 1961, when he was succeeded by Dirk Stikker. Spaak was also instrumental in the choice of Brussels as the new seat of the Alliance's HQ in 1966.

This was also the year of his last European campaign, when he played an important conciliatory role in resolving the "empty chair crisis" by helping to bring France back into the European fold. In 1957 he received the Karlspreis (engl.: Charlemagne Award) an Award by the German city of Aachen to people who contributed to the European idea and European peace.

Retirement

Paul-Henri Spaak retired from politics in 1966. He was member of the Royal Belgian Academy of French Language and Literature. In 1969, he published his memoirs in two volumes titled Combats inachevés ("The Continuing Battle"). Spaak died aged 73, on July 31, 1972 in his home in Braine-l'Alleud near Brussels, and was buried at the Foriest graveyard in Braine-l'Alleud.

He and his wife Marguerite Malevez had two daughters—Antoinette Spaak led the Democratic Front of Francophones—and a son, the diplomat Fernand Spaak. After her death in August 1964, he married Simone Dear in April 1965. His niece was the actress Catherine Spaak. During the 1940s, during his time in New York with the United Nations, he also had an affair with the American fashion designer Pauline Fairfax Potter (1908-1976).

Trivia

• In the election for De Grootste Belg (The Greatest Belgian) Spaak ended on the 40th place in the Flemish version and on the 11th place in the Walloon version.
• In 1938 he allowed Herman Van Breda to smuggle the legacy of Edmund Husserl out of Nazi Germany to Belgium through the Belgian Embassy in Berlin.
• Despite their strong political differences, he had a great friendship with Portugal fascist dictator António de Oliveira Salazar.

See also

• Paul-Henri Spaak Foundation
• Spaak method of negotiating
• Robert Rothschild, diplomat, chef de cabinet

References

• Spaak, Paul-Henri (1971). The Continuing Battle: Memoirs of a European, 1936-1966. trans. Henry Fox. London: Weidenfeld. ISBN 0-297-99352-6.

External links

• Fondation Paul-Henri Spaak