Marcel Colla

Marcel Colla (* 28. September 1943 in Deurne , Antwerp , Antwerp Province ) is a Belgian sociologist and politician of the Belgian Socialist Party (BSP) and most recently the Socialist Party (SP), which among other ministers in the eighth and ninth government of Prime Minister Wilfried Martens and in the first and second governments of Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene .

Life

Member of Parliament, Member of the European Parliament and State Secretary

After attending school, Colla studied social sciences and graduated with a licentiate . He then worked as a sociologist.

In the early 1970s he began his political engagement and in 1970, succeeding Fernand Stans, he became chairman of the Young Socialists (Jongsocialisten) , the youth organization of the Belgian Socialist Partij. He held this position until he was replaced by Norbert De Batselier in 1973.

Between 1977 and 1980 he was Schepen (alderman) in his hometown Deurne and during this time from October 10 to December 17, 1978 also briefly member of the Chamber of Deputies of Belgium , in which he represented the arrondissement of Antwerp . At the same time he was a member of the Flemish Council (Vlaamse Raad) , which later became the Flemish Parliament (Vlaamse Parlement) .

In the European elections in 1979 he was elected a member of the European Parliament and was a member of it in the first electoral term until 1982.

On November 8, 1981 Colla was again a member of the Chamber of Deputies and represented in this first again the Arrondissement of Antwerp and then from May 21, 1995 to May 5, 1999 the constituency of Antwerp . At the same time he was again a member of the Flemish Council during this period.

On May 9, 1988, Prime Minister Wilfried Martens appointed him as State Secretary for Science Policy in his eighth government, and in this function was attached to the Minister for Science Policy, Hugo Schiltz .

Minister, parliamentary group leader and senator

After a cabinet reshuffle on January 16, 1989, Colla took over the post of Minister for Post, Telegraph and Telephone from his party colleague Freddy Willockx in the eighth Martens government March 1992 from.

Later Colla was from 1994 to 1999 chairman of the parliamentary group of the Socialist Party in the Chamber of Deputies.

At the same time he was again on June 18, 1994 as the successor to Freddy Willockx Minister for Pensions in the first cabinet of Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene. After Dehaene had formed his second government on June 23, 1995, he took over the post of Minister for Public Health and Pensions and held this post until June 1, 1999 when he had to resign due to a dioxin scandal. He was succeeded by the previous Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior, Luc Van den Bossche , who was now Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior and Public Health, and the previous State Secretary for Security and Environment Jan Peeters , who was the Minister for Pensions, Security, Social Integration and environment took over.

After leaving the Chamber of Deputies, Colla became a member of the Senate in 1999 and was a member of it until 2003. As such, he was also a member of the Executive Council of the World Health Organization (WHO) between 1999 and 2002 and at the same time a delegate of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from 1999 to 2001 .

For his political services he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of the Leopold , before he was appointed Grand Officer of the Order of Leopold on May 11, 2003 .

Web links

• Entry on the homepage of the Belgian Chamber of Deputies
• Entry on the Senate homepage
• Entry on Marcel Colla in the European Parliament 's database of deputies