Paul-Henri Spaak

Biography

Paul-Henri Spaak was born in Schaerbeek in 1899 into a prominent political family: his uncle Paul-Émile Janson became prime minister and his mother was Belgium's first woman senator. Captured while trying to join the army in 1914, he spent two years as a prisoner of war, then studied law at the Free University of Brussels, played Davis Cup tennis and practised as a lawyer, defending among others an Italian anarchist accused of trying to kill Crown Prince Umberto.

He joined the Belgian Labour Party in 1920 and entered parliament in 1932. He was transport minister from 1935 and foreign minister from 1936, and in 1938-1939 was prime minister for the first time. After the German invasion in 1940 he reached London with Hubert Pierlot and served as foreign minister of the government in exile, where he negotiated the Benelux customs union. He was prime minister again briefly in March 1946 and from 1947 to 1949, when women gained the vote.

Internationally he chaired the first session of the UN General Assembly, presided over the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe from 1949 to 1951 and over the Common Assembly of the Coal and Steel Community from 1952. After the 1955 Messina Conference he led the committee whose Spaak Report laid the ground for the Treaties of Rome, which he signed for Belgium in 1957.

From 1957 to 1961 he was Secretary General of NATO, clashing often with Charles de Gaulle, and he then served again as foreign minister until 1966. Often called 'Mr Europe', he retired that year, published his memoirs and died in Braine-l'Alleud in 1972.