28 Facts About Paul-Henri Spaak

Paul-Henri Spaak became the prime minister in 1938 and held the position until 1939.

Paul-Henri Spaak held various further Belgian ministerial portfolios until 1966.

Paul-Henri Spaak was Belgium's foreign minister for 18 years between 1939 and 1966.

Paul-Henri Spaak, a convinced supporter of multilateralism, became internationally famous for his support of international cooperation, in which he hoped to include geopolitical enemies of Belgium and NATO such as the Soviet Union and its satellite states.

Paul-Henri Spaak served as the first President of the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe between 1949 and 1950 and became the first President of the European Coal and Steel Community between 1952 and 1954.

In 1955, he was appointed to the so-called Paul-Henri Spaak Committee studying the possibility of a common market within Europe and played an influential role in preparing the 1957 Treaty of Rome which established the European Economic Community.

Paul-Henri Spaak remains an influential figure in European politics and his name is carried, among other things, by a charitable foundation, one of the buildings of the European Parliament, and a method of negotiation.

Paul-Henri Spaak was born on 25 January 1899 in Schaerbeek, Belgium into the prominent Spaak-Janson family.

Paul-Henri Spaak's maternal grandfather, Paul Janson, was an important member of the Liberal Party.

Paul-Henri Spaak's mother, Marie Janson, was a socialist, and the first woman to enter the Belgian Senate, and his father, Paul Spaak, was a poet and playwright.

Paul-Henri Spaak became a member of the Socialist Belgian Labour Party in 1920.

When he was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1936 to 1940, Paul-Henri Spaak adhered to the political independence of Belgium and carried on the long-standing Belgian policy of neutrality, with no formal military cooperation with France or the United Kingdom and no open hostility to the Germans.

Paul-Henri Spaak was twice 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.

Paul-Henri Spaak was again foreign minister from April 1954 to June 1958 in the cabinet of Achille Van Acker and from April 1961 to March 1966 in the cabinets of Theo Lefevre and Pierre Harmel.

Paul-Henri Spaak gained international prominence in 1945 when he was elected chairman of the first session of the General Assembly of the United Nations.

Paul-Henri Spaak became a staunch supporter of regional cooperation and collective security after 1944.

However, after three years of patient cajoling at the Council of Europe, Paul-Henri Spaak came to understand that the organization was not ready to move towards the united Europe that he dreamed of, and in December 1951 - after the Assembly rejected a proposal to set up a European "political authority" - he resigned, declaring his great regret at this missed opportunity.

But, as Paul-Henri Spaak had shrewdly foreseen, tying the coal and steel industries of France and Germany together - at that time the two industries necessary to make war - was just the first step.

Paul-Henri Spaak signed the treaty for Belgium, together with Jean Charles Snoy et d'Oppuers.

Paul-Henri Spaak held this office from 1957 until 1961, when he was succeeded by Dirk Stikker.

Paul-Henri Spaak feuded constantly with French president Charles de Gaulle.

Paul-Henri Spaak publicly attacked de Gaulle, blaming him for unjustly and unwisely blocking NATO's progress and stalling efforts toward European and Atlantic integration.

When, in 1962, France, under de Gaulle, attempted to block both British entry to the European Communities and undermine their supranational foundation with the Fouchet Plan, Paul-Henri Spaak working with Joseph Luns of the Netherlands rebuffed the idea.

Paul-Henri Spaak was a staunch defender of the independence of the European Commission.

On 21 February 1961, Spaak was presented with the Medal of Freedom by US President John F Kennedy.

Paul-Henri Spaak was member of the Royal Belgian Academy of French Language and Literature.

Paul-Henri Spaak died aged 73, of kidney failure on 31 July 1972, in his home in Braine-l'Alleud near Brussels, and was buried in Braine-l'Alleud.

Paul-Henri Spaak, nicknamed "Mr Europe", was the main motive for one of the most recent and famous gold commemorative coins: the Belgian 3 pioneers of the European unification commemorative coin, minted in 2002.