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| Leo Tindemans, the former Belgian prime minister and veteran centre-right politician, who has died aged 92, will be best remembered as one of the fathers of European integration. It was his report in 1976 that laid down the idea of a “people’s Europe”, foreshadowing ideals such as economic and monetary union and common foreign and security policies, which would later alarm theoretically natural allies such as the British Conservatives, but which at the time earned him the sobriquet Mr Europe. He was once heard musing that what he would really have liked to have been was foreign minister of a large European country. | Leo Tindemans, the former Belgian prime minister and veteran centre-right politician, who has died aged 92, will be best remembered as one of the fathers of European integration. It was his report in 1976 that laid down the idea of a “people’s Europe”, foreshadowing ideals such as economic and monetary union and common foreign and security policies, which would later alarm theoretically natural allies such as the British Conservatives, but which at the time earned him the sobriquet Mr Europe. He was once heard musing that what he would really have liked to have been was foreign minister of a large European country. |
| Tindemans, tall, thin, naturally courteous and dignified, was a dominant force in Belgian politics for many years, prime minister from 1974 to 1978 and minister for foreign affairs for most of the 1980s. He was the architect of the constitutional settlement in which was rooted a Belgian federal state whose three language groups, the Wallonian French-speakers, the Flemish of the north and Germans in the eastern fringes, together with the capital, Brussels, had their own regional governments. This project has in recent years inadvertently caused significant difficulties in forming a stable, collaborative, national government, a stasis that grieved his generation. | Tindemans, tall, thin, naturally courteous and dignified, was a dominant force in Belgian politics for many years, prime minister from 1974 to 1978 and minister for foreign affairs for most of the 1980s. He was the architect of the constitutional settlement in which was rooted a Belgian federal state whose three language groups, the Wallonian French-speakers, the Flemish of the north and Germans in the eastern fringes, together with the capital, Brussels, had their own regional governments. This project has in recent years inadvertently caused significant difficulties in forming a stable, collaborative, national government, a stasis that grieved his generation. |
| Tindemans was from a long line of Flemish prime ministers broken only recently. He was mayor of the small town of Edegem, near Antwerp, a post he retained for 11 years even while he was prime minister. He lacked the spikiness of other Flemish politicians towards the francophone community and was fluent in French and English. As someone who grew to maturity during the second world war years, he was a natural anglophile, despite the trials of having to deal with Thatcherite British ministers and the contrariness of Tory MEPs. | Tindemans was from a long line of Flemish prime ministers broken only recently. He was mayor of the small town of Edegem, near Antwerp, a post he retained for 11 years even while he was prime minister. He lacked the spikiness of other Flemish politicians towards the francophone community and was fluent in French and English. As someone who grew to maturity during the second world war years, he was a natural anglophile, despite the trials of having to deal with Thatcherite British ministers and the contrariness of Tory MEPs. |
| He was the son of a diesel mechanic in the port of Antwerp, Frans Tindemans, and his wife, Margaret (nee Vercruyssen), in a society where politicians are not only either francophone or Flemish, but also either Freemasons or Catholics – traditionally alternating in office; he was definitely in the latter camp. At 18 he became a refugee – an experience that helped shape many postwar politicians’ attitudes to Europe – fleeing the German invasion in 1940 and witnessing the British army’s retreat to Dunkirk amid the ruins of his country. | He was the son of a diesel mechanic in the port of Antwerp, Frans Tindemans, and his wife, Margaret (nee Vercruyssen), in a society where politicians are not only either francophone or Flemish, but also either Freemasons or Catholics – traditionally alternating in office; he was definitely in the latter camp. At 18 he became a refugee – an experience that helped shape many postwar politicians’ attitudes to Europe – fleeing the German invasion in 1940 and witnessing the British army’s retreat to Dunkirk amid the ruins of his country. |
| After the war, Tindemans studied economics at Ghent, Antwerp and the Catholic university of Leuven (then called Louvain) and, after briefly becoming a journalist and civil servant in the ministry of agriculture, entered politics as secretary general of the Flemish Christian Democrats in 1958. Thereafter, his rise through party ranks was rapid. He was elected to the Belgian chamber of deputies in 1961, minister of community affairs from 1968, then minister of agriculture and, quaintly, the middle classes, before becoming deputy prime minister, then two years later, in 1974, prime minister, just as the oil crisis took hold. | After the war, Tindemans studied economics at Ghent, Antwerp and the Catholic university of Leuven (then called Louvain) and, after briefly becoming a journalist and civil servant in the ministry of agriculture, entered politics as secretary general of the Flemish Christian Democrats in 1958. Thereafter, his rise through party ranks was rapid. He was elected to the Belgian chamber of deputies in 1961, minister of community affairs from 1968, then minister of agriculture and, quaintly, the middle classes, before becoming deputy prime minister, then two years later, in 1974, prime minister, just as the oil crisis took hold. |
| During this period he also became involved in wider European affairs, with broader international connections, with elder statesmen such as the French economist Jean Monnet and, thanks to a year at Harvard, with Henry Kissinger, who became a lifelong friend. As prime minister he presided over a coalition government with the more rightwing, business-orientated Liberals, commanding a joint majority of 155 in a 212-member parliament. That position of strength did not stop him coming under physical threat from Belgian hunters as he tried to implement a Common Market wild birds directive – they were sufficiently intimidating to force him to sleep away from home for a while – or from seeing his government buffeted by the oil price rises. “This is not a thunderstorm, it is a climatic change,” he remarked perceptively. | During this period he also became involved in wider European affairs, with broader international connections, with elder statesmen such as the French economist Jean Monnet and, thanks to a year at Harvard, with Henry Kissinger, who became a lifelong friend. As prime minister he presided over a coalition government with the more rightwing, business-orientated Liberals, commanding a joint majority of 155 in a 212-member parliament. That position of strength did not stop him coming under physical threat from Belgian hunters as he tried to implement a Common Market wild birds directive – they were sufficiently intimidating to force him to sleep away from home for a while – or from seeing his government buffeted by the oil price rises. “This is not a thunderstorm, it is a climatic change,” he remarked perceptively. |
| In the same year, at the December EEC summit in Paris, Tindemans was charged, following an initiative by Harold Wilson, with setting out the definitive future of Europe. His report, published two years later, characteristically called Europe, Ideal of Our Generation, was seminal in setting out a goal of long-term integration and was accordingly sidelined at the time by European leaders. It suggested a gradual ending of the national vetoes of the then nine member states, the establishment of a common defence policy, the creation of an internal single market, and the appointment of one Europe minister to represent the community to the US. | In the same year, at the December EEC summit in Paris, Tindemans was charged, following an initiative by Harold Wilson, with setting out the definitive future of Europe. His report, published two years later, characteristically called Europe, Ideal of Our Generation, was seminal in setting out a goal of long-term integration and was accordingly sidelined at the time by European leaders. It suggested a gradual ending of the national vetoes of the then nine member states, the establishment of a common defence policy, the creation of an internal single market, and the appointment of one Europe minister to represent the community to the US. |
| Far from being the hidden agenda later ascribed to the EU by British Eurosceptics, the report spelled it out: “European union implies that we present a united front to the outside world. We must co-ordinate our action in all the main fields of our external relations ... its aim is not only to defend our interests but also to use our collective strength to support whatever is just and legal in world discussions. | Far from being the hidden agenda later ascribed to the EU by British Eurosceptics, the report spelled it out: “European union implies that we present a united front to the outside world. We must co-ordinate our action in all the main fields of our external relations ... its aim is not only to defend our interests but also to use our collective strength to support whatever is just and legal in world discussions. |
| “European union recognises the interdependence of the economic prosperity of our states and accepts the consequences of this: a common economic and monetary policy to cope with this prosperity, common policies in the industrial and agricultural sector and on energy and research ...” | “European union recognises the interdependence of the economic prosperity of our states and accepts the consequences of this: a common economic and monetary policy to cope with this prosperity, common policies in the industrial and agricultural sector and on energy and research ...” |
| When, two decades later, Margaret Thatcher complained she had not realised what was involved in signing up to the single market, Tindemans commented wryly: “That is probably true.” | When, two decades later, Margaret Thatcher complained she had not realised what was involved in signing up to the single market, Tindemans commented wryly: “That is probably true.” |
| Re-elected in 1977, Tindemans resigned as prime minister a year later as the governing coalition, now including the socialists, fell out over the need for economic austerity measures to combat oil price rises and the decline of the old Wallonian – hence francophone – heavy industries of iron, coal and steel. The centre-right proposed cuts in welfare benefits; the socialists favoured tax hikes – and perennial proposals to improve the efficiency of the country’s notoriously lax tax-collecting effort. When a new government finally emerged in 1979, it was with Tindemans’s one-time protege, and later, rival, Wilfried Martens in charge, as he was to be for the next 13 years. | Re-elected in 1977, Tindemans resigned as prime minister a year later as the governing coalition, now including the socialists, fell out over the need for economic austerity measures to combat oil price rises and the decline of the old Wallonian – hence francophone – heavy industries of iron, coal and steel. The centre-right proposed cuts in welfare benefits; the socialists favoured tax hikes – and perennial proposals to improve the efficiency of the country’s notoriously lax tax-collecting effort. When a new government finally emerged in 1979, it was with Tindemans’s one-time protege, and later, rival, Wilfried Martens in charge, as he was to be for the next 13 years. |
| Tindemans himself eventually became foreign minister in 1981, briefly entangling with Britain over the Falklands, and, later, in that graveyard of Belgian foreign policy, Zaire. Thatcher was understandably incandescent at the height of the Falklands crisis when a junior functionary of the Belgian government who was on duty one weekend declined a request to supply ammunition to the British expeditionary force. The move was swiftly rescinded and the anglophile Tindemans personally played a significant part in rallying European support for the British case, but the incident long rankled with Thatcher. | |
| Tindemans was a natural co-founder of the European right’s attempt to establish a multinational political group, the European People’s party (EPP) – from which David Cameron withdrew Britain’s Tories in 2009 – and, increasingly, his attentions turned to the Strasbourg parliament. He was sufficiently distinguished in a gathering of placemen and second-raters to be known as Million Vote Man, because of the size of his majority in Belgium in the parliament’s first direct elections in 1979, the EPP becoming the dominant force in the parliament throughout most of the 80s and 90s. | Tindemans was a natural co-founder of the European right’s attempt to establish a multinational political group, the European People’s party (EPP) – from which David Cameron withdrew Britain’s Tories in 2009 – and, increasingly, his attentions turned to the Strasbourg parliament. He was sufficiently distinguished in a gathering of placemen and second-raters to be known as Million Vote Man, because of the size of his majority in Belgium in the parliament’s first direct elections in 1979, the EPP becoming the dominant force in the parliament throughout most of the 80s and 90s. |
| Elected leader of the EPP in 1992, he was brought down two years later over the thorny issue of British Tory MEPs’ membership of the group. He was replaced by his nemesis Martens, who had himself then fallen from power in Belgium. As an elder statesman, Tindemans remained true to his European ideals, calling for a US-style constitution for Europe and predicting at an early stage that an indefinite military presence would be needed in the Balkans. | Elected leader of the EPP in 1992, he was brought down two years later over the thorny issue of British Tory MEPs’ membership of the group. He was replaced by his nemesis Martens, who had himself then fallen from power in Belgium. As an elder statesman, Tindemans remained true to his European ideals, calling for a US-style constitution for Europe and predicting at an early stage that an indefinite military presence would be needed in the Balkans. |
| In 1995 he was instrumental, along with the US media mogul Ted Turner, the financier George Soros, the former French prime minister Michel Rocard and others, in creating the London-based International Crisis Group, to monitor nascent trouble. | In 1995 he was instrumental, along with the US media mogul Ted Turner, the financier George Soros, the former French prime minister Michel Rocard and others, in creating the London-based International Crisis Group, to monitor nascent trouble. |
| He is survived by his wife Rosa Naesens, whom he married in 1960, and their four children, Thomas, Pia, Nora and Bruno, and 12 grandchildren. | He is survived by his wife Rosa Naesens, whom he married in 1960, and their four children, Thomas, Pia, Nora and Bruno, and 12 grandchildren. |
| • Leo Tindemans, politician, born 16 April 1922; died 26 December 2014 | • Leo Tindemans, politician, born 16 April 1922; died 26 December 2014 |