Paul-Henri Spaak
Encyclopedia
Paul Henri Charles Spaak (25 January 1899 – 31 July 1972) was a Belgian
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 Socialist politician and statesman
Statesman
A statesman is usually a politician or other notable public figure who has had a long and respected career in politics or government at the national and international level. As a term of respect, it is usually left to supporters or commentators to use the term...

.

Early life

Paul-Henri Spaak was born on 25 January 1899 in Schaerbeek, Belgium, to a distinguished Belgian family. His grandfather, Paul Janson
Paul Janson
Paul Janson was a Belgian liberal politician.Born in Herstal, Janson studied philosophy and law at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. From an early age he was a strong supporter of electoral reform and stood on the progressive wing of the Belgian liberal movement...

 was an important member of the Liberal Party
Liberal Party (Belgium)
The Liberal Party was a Belgian political party that existed from 1846 until 1961, when it became the Party for Freedom and Progress, Partij voor Vrijheid en Vooruitgang/Parti de la Liberté et du Progrès or PVV-PLP, under the leadership of Omer Vanaudenhove.-History:The Liberal Party was founded...

. His mother, Marie Janson
Marie Janson
Marie Janson was a Belgian politician and the first woman to serve in the Belgian senate. She was a daughter of Paul Janson and Anna-Augustine Amoré....

 was a socialist, and the first woman to enter the Belgian Senate
Belgian Senate
The Belgian Senate is one of the two chambers of the bicameral Federal Parliament of Belgium, the other being the Chamber of Representatives. It is considered to be the "upper house" of the Federal Parliament.-History and future:...

, and his father, Paul Spaak
Paul Spaak
Paul Spaak was a Belgian lawyer and playwright.Born in Ixelles, Spaak graduated in law at the Université Libre de Bruxelles in 1894. On 22 July 1894, he married Marie Janson, daughter of Paul Janson. The couple had four children, of whom Paul-Henri Spaak, later Belgian Prime Minister like his...

 was a poet and playwright. Another noted members of his family included Paul Henri's uncle Paul-Emile Janson
Paul-Emile Janson
Paul-Emile Janson was a Belgian liberal politician.Born in Brussels, Janson was the son of liberal statesman Paul Janson . He studied law at the Free University of Brussels , practised as a lawyer, and also taught at the university...

 who served as Prime Minister of Belgium from 1937 to 1938 and his niece, Catherine Spaak
Catherine Spaak
-Biography:Spaak was born at Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine . She is the niece of Belgian politician Paul-Henri Spaak.She spent most of her career in Italy, where she became a teenage star...

, a movie star.

During World War I, Spaak attempted to join the Belgian Army
Belgian Army
The Land Component is organised using the concept of capacities, whereby units are gathered together according to their function and material. Within this framework, there are five capacities: the command capacity, the combat capacity, the support capacity, the services capacity and the training...

, but was captured by the Germans, and spent the next two years in a German prison camp. At the end of the war, Spaak was released from captivity and entered the Université Libre de Bruxelles
Université Libre de Bruxelles
The Université libre de Bruxelles is a French-speaking university in Brussels, Belgium. It has 21,000 students, 29% of whom come from abroad, and an equally cosmopolitan staff.-Name:...

, where he studied law. During the same period, Spaak was also a tennis star, and played for the Belgian team in the 1922 Davis Cup
Davis Cup
The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation and is contested between teams of players from competing countries in a knock-out format. The competition began in 1900 as a challenge between Britain and the United States. By...

.

After receiving his law degree, Spaak practiced law in Brussels, where he "excelled in defending Communists charged with conspiring against the security of the realm", including Fernando de Rosa
Fernando de Rosa
Fernando de Rosa was an Italian student who attempted to assassinate Umberto Prince of Piedmont, later Umberto II of Italy in Brussels on October 24, 1929. De Rosa was born in Milan and studied law in Turin before fleeing Italy for France in order to avoid imprisonment for his political views...

, an Italian student who attempted to kill Crown Prince Umberto of Italy during a state visit by the prince to Brussel.

Belgian politics

He became a member of the Socialist Belgian Labour Party
Belgian Labour Party
The Belgian Labour Party, called Belgische Werkliedenpartij in Dutch and Parti Ouvrier Belge in French, was the first socialist party in Belgium, founded in 1885.-History:...

 in 1920. He was elected deputy in 1932.

In 1935 he entered the cabinet of Paul Van Zeeland
Paul van Zeeland
Paul Guillaume van Zeeland was a Belgian lawyer, economist, Catholic politician and statesman born in Soignies....

 as Minister of Transport. In February 1936 he became Minister of Foreign Affairs, serving first under Zeeland and then under his uncle, Paul-Émile Janson
Paul-Emile Janson
Paul-Emile Janson was a Belgian liberal politician.Born in Brussels, Janson was the son of liberal statesman Paul Janson . He studied law at the Free University of Brussels , practised as a lawyer, and also taught at the university...

. From May 1938 to February 1939 he was Prime Minister for the first time. In 1938, he allowed Herman Van Breda
Herman Van Breda
Herman Leo Van Breda was a Franciscan, philosopher and founder of the Husserl archives at the Higher Institute of Philosophy of the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium....

 to smuggle the legacy of Edmund Husserl
Edmund Husserl
Edmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl was a philosopher and mathematician and the founder of the 20th century philosophical school of phenomenology. He broke with the positivist orientation of the science and philosophy of his day, yet he elaborated critiques of historicism and of psychologism in logic...

 out of Nazi Germany to Belgium through the Belgian Embassy in Berlin.

He was Foreign Minister again from September 1939 until August 1949 under the subsequent Prime Ministers Hubert Pierlot
Hubert Pierlot
Hubert Marie Eugène, Count Pierlot was a Belgian Walloon politician and jurist, the 32nd Prime Minister of Belgium between 1939 and 1945 .-Biography:He was a representative of the Catholic Party Hubert Marie Eugène, Count Pierlot (23 December 1883, Cugnon (Bertrix) – 13 December 1963, Uccle)...

, Achille Van Acker
Achille Van Acker
Achille Honoré Van Acker was the 33rd Prime Minister of Belgium in four different cabinets from 1945 to 1958, for a total period of seven years. He was a member of the BSP-PSB - the then still national Belgian Socialist Party. He was nicknamed Achille Charbon.-Life:Van Acker was born in Bruges on...

 and Camille Huysmans
Camille Huysmans
Jean Joseph Camille Huysmans was a Belgian politician.Huymans studied German philology at the University of Liège. He was a teacher from 1893 until 1897...

. During this time he twice was appointed Prime Minister as well, first from 13 to 31 March 1946 – the shortest government in Belgian history, and again from March 1947 to August 1949.

He again was foreign minister from April 1954 to June 1958 in the cabinet of Achille Van Acker
Achille Van Acker
Achille Honoré Van Acker was the 33rd Prime Minister of Belgium in four different cabinets from 1945 to 1958, for a total period of seven years. He was a member of the BSP-PSB - the then still national Belgian Socialist Party. He was nicknamed Achille Charbon.-Life:Van Acker was born in Bruges on...

 and from April 1961 to March 1966 in the cabinets of Théo Lefèvre
Théo Lefèvre
Théodore Joseph Albéric Marie "Théo" Lefèvre was a lawyer at the Ghent court of justice. In 1946 he became deputy of the Belgian parliament for the PSC-CVP. Between 25 April 1961 and 28 July 1965 he was the 39th Prime Minister of Belgium.-External links:*...

 and Pierre Harmel
Pierre Harmel
Pierre Charles José Marie Harmel, from 1991 Count Harmel was a Belgian lawyer, Christian Democratic politician and diplomat...

.

Spaak was an advocate of Belgium's "independence policy" before World War II. During the German invasion in May 1940, he fled to France and tried to return during the summer but was prevented by the Germans, even though he was Foreign Minister at the time. Hence, against his wishes he settled in Britain.

UN

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).

Europe

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
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

, the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 and Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...

 (see Benelux
Benelux
The Benelux is an economic union in Western Europe comprising three neighbouring countries, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. These countries are located in northwestern Europe between France and Germany...

). In August 1949, he was elected President of the first session of the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe
Council of Europe
The Council of Europe is an international organisation promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation...

. From 1952 to 1953, he presided the Common Assembly
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...

 of the European Coal and Steel Community
European Coal and Steel Community
The European Coal and Steel Community was a six-nation international organisation serving to unify Western Europe during the Cold War and create the foundation for the modern-day developments of the European Union...

.

In 1955, the Messina Conference
Messina Conference
The Messina Conference was held from 1 to 3 June 1955 at the Italian city of Messina, Sicily. The conference of the Foreign Ministers of the six Member States of the European Coal and Steel Community would lead to the creation of the European Economic Community in 1958...

 of European leaders appointed him as chairman of a preparatory committee (Spaak Committee
Spaak Committee
The Spaak Committee was an Intergovernmental Committee set up by the Foreign Ministers of the six Member States of the European Coal and Steel Community as a result of the Messina Conference of 1955. The Spaak Committee started its work on 9 July 1955 and ended on 20 April 1956, when the Heads of...

) charged with the preparation of a report on the creation of a common European market. The so-called "Spaak Report
Spaak Report
The Spaak report or Brussels Report on the General Common Market, was the report drafted by the Spaak Committee in 1956. The Intergovernmental Committee, headed by Paul-Henri Spaak presented its definitive report on 21 April 1956 to the six Governments of the Member States of the European Coal and...

" formed the cornerstone of the Intergovernmental Conference on the Common Market and Euratom
Intergovernmental Conference on the Common Market and Euratom
The Intergovernmental Conference on the Common Market and Euratom was held in Brussels and started on 26 June 1956 with a session in the Grand Salon of the Belgian Foreign Ministry. The negotiations went on at the Castle of the Valley of the Duchess in Auderghem and would continue until March 1957...

 at Val Duchesse
Castle of the Valley of the Duchess
The Castle of Val-Duchesse is a former priory situated in the municipality of Auderghem in the Brussels Capital Region of Belgium. The castle is owned by the Belgian Royal Trust....

 in 1956 and led to the signature, on 25 March 1957, of the Treaties of Rome establishing a European Economic Community
European Economic Community
The European Economic Community The European Economic Community (EEC) The European Economic Community (EEC) (also known as the Common Market in the English-speaking world, renamed the European Community (EC) in 1993The information in this article primarily covers the EEC's time as an independent...

 and the European Atomic Energy Community
European Atomic Energy Community
The European Atomic Energy Community is an international organisation which is legally distinct from the European Union , but has the same membership, and is governed by the EU's institutions....

 (Euratom). Paul-Henri Spaak signed the treaty for Belgium, together with Jean Charles Snoy et d'Oppuers
Jean Charles Snoy et d'Oppuers
Count Jean Charles Snoy et d'Oppuers , son of Baron Thierry Snoy, was a Belgian civil servant, diplomat and Roman Catholic politician for the PSC-CVP...

. His role in the creation of the EEC earned Spaak a place among the Founding fathers of the European Union
Founding fathers of the European Union
The Founding Fathers of the European Union are a number of men who have been recognised as making a major contribution to the development of European unity and what is now the European Union. There is no official list of founding fathers or a single event defining them so some ideas vary.-Europe's...

.

When in 1962 France's President de Gaulle attempted to block both British entry to the European Communities and undermine their supranational foundation with the Fouchet Plan
Fouchet Plan
-Introduction:The Fouchet Plan was a plan proposed by President Charles de Gaulle of France in 1961. It was written by Christian Fouchet, France's ambassador to Denmark. The idea was to form a new 'Union of States', an intergovernmental alternative to the European Communities...

, Spaak working with Joseph Luns
Joseph Luns
Joseph Marie Antoine Hubert Luns was a Dutch politician and diplomat of the defunct Catholic People's Party now merged into the Christian Democratic Appeal . He was the longest-serving Minister of Foreign Affairs from September 2, 1952 until July 6, 1971...

 of the Netherlands rebuffed the idea. He was a staunch defender of the independence of the European Commission. "Europe of tomorrow must be a supranational Europe," he declared. In honour of his work for Europe, the first building of the European Parliament in Brussels
Espace Léopold
The Espace Léopold or is the complex of parliament buildings in Brussels housing the European Parliament, a legislative chamber of the European Union ....

 was named after him.

NATO

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
Dirk Stikker
Dirk Uipko Stikker, GBE, GCVO was a Dutch banker, industrialist, politician, and diplomat.Born in Winschoten, he studied law at the University of Groningen. After his studies he began a career in the banking sector. In 1935, he became director of Heineken International, the famous beer company...

. 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
Karlspreis
- See also :*Charlemagne*European integration*Leipzig Human Rights Award, originally called the "Alternative Charlemagne Award", formed in opposition to Clinton's recognition with the award- External links :* http://www.karlspreis.de/ *...

 (engl.: Charlemagne Award) an Award by the German city of Aachen
Aachen
Aachen has historically been a spa town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Aachen was a favoured residence of Charlemagne, and the place of coronation of the Kings of Germany. Geographically, Aachen is the westernmost town of Germany, located along its borders with Belgium and the Netherlands, ...

 to people who contributed to the European idea and European peace.

On 21 February 1961, Spaak was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom
Presidential Medal of Freedom
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is an award bestowed by the President of the United States and is—along with thecomparable Congressional Gold Medal bestowed by an act of U.S. Congress—the highest civilian award in the United States...

 by President John Kennedy.

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"; literally, "unfinished fights"). Spaak died aged 73, on 31 July 1972 in his home in Braine-l'Alleud
Braine-l'Alleud
Braine-l'Alleud is a Walloon municipality located in the Belgian province of Walloon Brabant, about 20 kilometers south of Brussels. The Braine-l'Alleud municipality includes the former municipalities of Braine-l'Alleud proper, Ophain-Bois-Seigneur-Isaac, and Lillois-Witterzée. It also includes...

 near Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

, and was buried at the Foriest graveyard in Braine-l'Alleud.

Family

He and his wife Marguerite Malevez had two daughters—Antoinette Spaak
Antoinette Spaak
Antoinette M. Spaak, born in Brussels on 27 June 1928, is a Belgian politician.Daughter of former Prime Minister of Belgium Paul-Henri Spaak, granddaughter of the first female member of the Belgian Senate Marie Janson, and great-niece of Prime Minister Paul-Émile Janson, Spaak was born into a...

 led the Democratic Front of Francophones
Democratic Front of Francophones
The Francophone Democratic Federalists , is a Francophone political party based in Brussels, Belgium founded on 11 May 1964. Until 1982, the FDF dominated Brussels' municipal politics. It is led by Deputy Olivier Maingain....

—and a son, the diplomat Fernand Spaak. After her death in August 1964, he married Simone Dear in April 1965. His brother was the screenwriter Charles Spaak
Charles Spaak
Charles Spaak was a Belgian screenwriter who was noted particularly for his work in the French cinema during the 1930s...

. His niece was the actress Catherine Spaak
Catherine Spaak
-Biography:Spaak was born at Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine . She is the niece of Belgian politician Paul-Henri Spaak.She spent most of her career in Italy, where she became a teenage star...

 one of his grandsons is the artist Anthony Palliser
Anthony Palliser
Anthony Palliser is a painter. He has lived in Paris since leaving university in 1971 .He studied in England at Downside school and graduated from New College Oxford. In 1967 he attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome....

. 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
Pauline de Rothschild
Pauline de Rothschild was a writer, a fashion designer, and, with her second husband, a translator of both Elizabethan poetry and the plays of Christopher Fry...

 (1908–1976).

Legacy

Spaak has left such a legacy behind, that he was the main motive for one of the most recent and famous gold commemorative coin: the Belgian 3 pioneers of the European unification commemorative coin, minted in 2002. The obverse side shows a portrait with the names Robert Schuman
Robert Schuman
Robert Schuman was a noted Luxembourgish-born French statesman. Schuman was a Christian Democrat and an independent political thinker and activist...

, Paul-Henri Spaak and Konrad Adenauer
Konrad Adenauer
Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer was a German statesman. He was the chancellor of the West Germany from 1949 to 1963. He is widely recognised as a person who led his country from the ruins of World War II to a powerful and prosperous nation that had forged close relations with old enemies France,...

.

In the election for De Grootste Belg
De Grootste Belg
De Grootste Belg was a 2005 vote conducted by Belgian public TV broadcaster Canvas, public radio broadcaster Radio 1, and newspaper De Standaard, to determine who is the Greatest Belgian of all time...

(The Greatest Belgian) Spaak ended on the 40th place in the Flemish version and on the 11th place in the Walloon version.

See also

  • Paul-Henri Spaak Foundation
    Paul-Henri Spaak Foundation
    The Paul-Henri Spaak Foundation or Fondation Paul-Henri Spaak located in Brussels was founded in 1973, one year after the death Paul-Henri Spaak, to continue his work on European integration and transatlantic relations. The Foundation organises conferences and seminars, which are published and...

  • Robert Rothschild
    Robert Rothschild
    Baron Robert Rothschild was a Belgian diplomat. He helped to draft the Treaty of Rome of 1957, the foundation of the European Economic Community in 1958.-Biography:...

    , diplomat, chef de cabinet
  • Spaak method
    Spaak method
    The Spaak-method of negotiating is named after Paul-Henri Spaak, who applied this method at the Intergovernmental Conference on the Common Market and Euratom in 1956 at Val Duchesse castle in preparing for the Treaties of Rome in 1957....

     of negotiating

External links

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