Paul-Henri Spaak

His Excellency Paul-Henri Spaak
Spaak in 1957
Prime Minister of Belgium
In office 20 March 1947 – 11 August 1949
Monarch	Leopold III
Regent	Prince Charles
Preceded by	Camille Huysmans
Succeeded by	Gaston Eyskens
In office 13 March 1946 – 31 March 1946
Monarch	Leopold III
Regent	Prince Charles
Preceded by	Achille Van Acker
Succeeded by	Achille Van Acker
In office 15 May 1938 – 22 February 1939
Monarch	Leopold III
Preceded by	Paul-Emile Janson
Succeeded by	Hubert Pierlot
2nd Secretary General of NATO
In office 16 May 1957 – 21 April 1961
Preceded by	Hastings Ismay
Succeeded by	Dirk Stikker
President of the Common Assembly (European Coal and Steel Community)
In office 11 September 1952 – 11 May 1954
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Alcide De Gasperi
President of the United Nations General Assembly
In office 31 March 1946 – 20 March 1947
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Oswaldo Aranha
Personal details
Born	Paul-Henri Charles Spaak (1899-01-25)25 January 1899 Schaerbeek, Belgium
Died	31 July 1972(1972-07-31) (aged 73) Braine-l'Alleud, Belgium
Political party	Belgian Workers' Party Belgian Socialist Party
Alma mater	Free University of Brussels

Paul-Henri Charles Spaak (French pronunciation: [pɔl ɑ̃ʁi ʃaʁl spak]; 25 January 1899 – 31 July 1972) was an influential Belgian Socialist politician, diplomat and statesman. Along with Robert Schuman, Alcide De Gasperi and Konrad Adenauer he was a leader in the formation of the institutions that evolved into the European Union.

A member of the influential Spaak family, he served briefly in World War I before he was captured, and rose to prominence after the war as a tennis player and lawyer, becoming famous for his high-profile defence of an Italian student accused of attempting to assassinate Italy's Crown Prince in 1929. A convinced socialist, Spaak entered politics in 1932 for the Belgian Workers' Party (later the Belgian Socialist Party) and gained his first ministerial portfolio in the government of Paul Van Zeeland in 1935. He became the prime minister of Belgium in 1938 and held the position until 1939. During World War II, he served as Foreign minister in the Belgian government in exile under Hubert Pierlot, where he negotiated the foundation of the Benelux Customs Union with the governments of the Netherlands and Luxembourg. After the war, he twice regained the position of prime minister, first for under a month in March 1946 and again between 1947 and 1949. He held various further Belgian ministerial portfolios until 1966. He was Belgium's Foreign minister for 18 years between 1939 and 1966.

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.^[1] In 1945, he was chosen to chair the first session of the General Assembly of the new United Nations. A long-running supporter of European integration, Spaak had been an early advocate of customs union and had negotiated the Benelux agreement in 1944. He 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 (ECSC) between 1952 and 1954. In 1955, he was appointed to the so-called 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 (EEC). He received the Charlemagne Prize the same year. Between 1957 and 1961, he served as the second Secretary-General of NATO.

Retiring from Belgian politics in 1966, Spaak died in 1972. He 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.