Willy De Clercq
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Willy De Clercq (born July 8, 1927 in Ghent ; † October 28, 2011 there ) was a Belgian liberal politician , EU Commissioner and member of the European Parliament .
career
He studied law and became a lawyer at the Court of Appeal in Ghent and professor at the University of Ghent and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel . Although he had a successful legal career, he switched to politics. He became a member of the Liberal Youth, City Councilor and Member of Parliament. For many years he was president of the then liberal party Partij voor Vrijheid en Vooruitgang .
De Clercq served in various coalition governments. He was Budget Minister from 1960 to 1961, Deputy Prime Minister and Budget Minister from 1966 to 1968, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister from 1973 to 1974 and Deputy Prime Minister in 1980. During the 1970s he was President and Governor of various international monetary institutions.
From 1979 to 1981 De Clercq was a member of the European Parliament . From 1985 to 1989 he was European Commissioner for Trade and Foreign Policy in the Delors I Commission . He was responsible for preparing the European internal market , which was decided by the Single European Act , as well as for cooperation with the EFTA countries .
After his tenure as EU Commissioner , he was re-elected to the European Parliament in 1989. After being re-elected in 1994 and 1999, he left parliament on July 19, 2004.
On January 6, 1985, De Clercq was appointed Minister of State by King Baudouin I of Belgium . He was a member of the Privy Council until his death . In 2006 De Clercq and his wife Fernande Fazzi were raised to the nobility by the king as burgrave and castle countess .
Awards
- 1988: Large gold medal on ribbon for services to the Republic of Austria
- Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
Web links
- Entry on Willy De Clercq in the European Parliament 's database of MEPs
- Willy De Clercq in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)
Individual evidence
- ^ Former Liberal Minister Willy De Clercq has died , message on BRF .online of October 28, 2011, viewed October 29, 2011
- ↑ List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF; 6.9 MB)
Frans Andriessen | António Cardoso e Cunha | Claude Cheysson | Henning Christophersen | Willy De Clercq | Stanley Clinton Davis | Arthur Cockfield | Jacques Delors | Manuel Marín (from 1986) | Abel Matutes (from 1986) | Nicolas Mosar | Karl-Heinz Narjes | Lorenzo Natali | Alois Pfeiffer , from 1987 Peter Schmidhuber | Carlo Ripa di Meana | Peter Sutherland | Grigoris Varfis
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | De Clercq, Willy |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Belgian liberal politician, MEP |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 8, 1927 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Ghent |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 28, 2011 |
| Place of death | Ghent |