5 Belgian prime ministers with European achievements

A prime minister is the head of the government, which means that he or she is also the leading politician for all Belgians. There are many different tasks a prime minister has to accomplish, for example, leading the government in his or her own country and representing it abroad. In the following listicle five important Belgian prime ministers, who also served the European cause, will be presented in short paragraphs.

1. Lèon Delacroix (1918–1920)

Lèon Delacroix was a Belgian lawyer and statesman. He became the first prime minister in Belgium after World War I. In his term his main task was the reconstruction of the damage caused by World War I. Furthermore, he was responsible for the universal voting rights in Belgium.

2. Wilfried Martens (1979–1992)

Besides serving as a Belgian prime minister, Wilfried Martens was one of the founding members of the European People’s Party (EPP) in 1976 and operated as their president from 1992 until his death in 2013. He also acted as chairman for the Belgian Christian People’s Party, which is now called the Christian Democratic and Flemish Party (CD&V). In addition to that, he also worked as the deputy in the Belgian Chamber of Representatives from 1974 to 1991 and as a senator from 1991 to 1994.

3. Jean-Luc Dehaene (1992–1999)

In 1992 Jean-Luc Dehaene managed to form one of Belgium’s most important reform governments: the governing coalition of Christian Democrats and Social Democrats. It was that important, because this action turned Belgium into a federal state. Even though there were several political crises and scandals (e.g. Dutroux affair) in the period between 1995 and 1999, he was able to do a good job and finally received the Vision for Europe Award in 1996 for his work toward a unified Europe.

4. Guy Verhofstadt (1999–2008)

Before becoming prime minister of Belgium in 1999, he had already operated as the Belgium’s deputy prime minister from 1985 to 1992. From 1985 to 2009 he was a member of the Chamber of Representatives and since 2009 he has been working as the leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for the Europe Group and has been a member of the European Parliament as well. Additionally, he is operating as the representative of the European Parliament in Brexit negotiations until now.

5. Herman Van Rompuy (2008–2009)

On November 19th in 2009, after operating as the prime minister of Belgium for not even one whole year, Van Rompuy had to give up his post because he was selected by the members of the European Council to be the first full-time President of the European Council. On March 1st in 2012 he was reelected and kept on serving as the President of the Euroean Council until November 2014.

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