When the name Mister Europe is heard today, people tend to think of handsome young men competing for the honour of ‘best looking man in Europe’. Yet it was former Belgian Prime Minister Paul-Henri Spaak, given this nickname in the 1950s, who was probably the first to wear this crown. He certainly was quite a man, but then chiefly in the political arena. Spaak was one of the founders of the modern EU.
Paul-Henri Spaak, former Prime Minister of Belgium, has been written into the history books as the driving force behind European integration. Even before the actual beginning of European economic and political cooperation, he was a believer in a European project. Spaak was devoted to Europe and looked beyond the borders of his own country.
Political visionary
His political ambition can be explained by his origins. Paul-Henri grew up in a political household: his grandfather was a politician, and his cousin briefly held the position of prime minister. Moreover, Paul-Henri’s mother, Marie Janson, was the first woman senator.
He was also a talented speaker, someone who was able to make people listen and had a gift for persuasion. Talents which, combined with his visions of European cooperation, made Paul-Henri Spaak one of the greatest proponents of the European project.
Wartime cooperation
During the Second World War, Spaak was Foreign Affairs Minister for Belgium. Together with the rest of the government, he worked in exile from London. On the European continent, the war raged brutally, but in London, together with his Dutch and Luxembourger colleagues, Spaak was at work on an entirely new and ambitious project. In 1944, Benelux was born: a customs union between Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. The idea was simple, but it had never been done before: within the borders of the three countries, free traffic became possible and on the external borders, a uniform import tariff was applied.
A new era
Postwar Europe was in ruins, but Spaak believed that economic and political cooperation could forge Europe into a strong continent once again. The war had made clear enough that no one had anything to gain from fighting with each other. His visionary gift allowed him to see the potential in the rubble of Europe after the war.
In 1955 he was made chairman of the committee of government representatives charged with drafting the Treaty of Rome (1957).
Together with Germany, Italy and France, the Benelux countries created the treaty that forms the basis of European economic and political integration. With the Treaty of Rome, the European Economic Union began, a process of integration that is still ongoing.
Paul-Henri Spaak was a modest man from a small country, whose ambitions transcended national borders. He was the youngest in a long line of Europe’s forefathers, a man who believed above all in international cooperation. A belief that would lead him to hold high positions within NATO and the UN.