Paul-Henri Spaak: the Belgian who put Europe on paper

Paul-Henri Spaak (1899–1972) was the Belgian socialist and foreign minister who chaired the negotiations for a European common market between 1955 and 1957. The Treaty of Rome is the treaty signed on 25 March 1957 that created the European Economic Community (EEC) and Euratom. Spaak's name heads the list of signatories: a small country turned out to be the ideal architect, precisely because nobody feared it.

On Monday, 25 March 1957, at six in the evening, in Rome, twelve men line up to sign in the Hall of the Horatii and Curiatii on the Capitoline Hill. In the Hall of the Horatii and Curiatii on the Capitoline Hill, twelve men line up to sign. On the walls, painted heroes of ancient Rome fight their legendary duel. Paul-Henri Spaak, fifty-eight and heavily built, leans over the document. What exactly is in front of him? According to a 2007 BBC report, the signed copy consisted largely of blank pages, because the printers had not finished in time. That same morning, the ministers were still meeting about last-minute changes to the wording. Europe was signed on a promise.

The next day, Spaak addresses a room of bankers in Rome, without notes. He warns that Europe will fall behind unless it takes radical steps. For him, the signature is not an ending. It marks the start of a journey that still has much to demonstrate.

The 1956 Spaak Report: a blueprint from Brussels

From July 1955, Paul-Henri Spaak chaired the committee charged with working out a common market and an atomic energy community. Its final report of 21 April 1956 carried his name: the Spaak Report. The committee was born out of failure. In 1954, the French parliament killed the European Defence Community, which was a plan for a joint European army. Europe seemed stuck. In early June 1955, the six foreign ministers met in Messina, Sicily, to find a new way forward, and they put Spaak in charge. To be fair, Spaak did not write the report himself. The French economist Pierre Uri and the German civil servant Hans von der Groeben did most of the drafting. Spaak did something else, and perhaps something harder. He kept six countries at one table.

Val Duchesse: negotiating in a château outside Brussels

From 26 June 1956, Paul-Henri Spaak chaired the conference that had to turn the report into treaties. After the summer, the talks moved to the Château of Val Duchesse (Hertoginnedal) in Auderghem, Brussels. It was not easy. Some delegations reopened questions that they had previously settled. Meanwhile, the 1956 Suez Crisis revealed Europe's energy supply's vulnerability. According to the CVCE, the European documentation centre of the University of Luxembourg, the winter of 1956–1957 was determined by political will and Spaak's diplomatic skill.

In January 1958, the same château became the first official seat of the new European Councils. It was an early sign of what Brussels would become.

Spaak in 1936: the minister of Belgian neutrality

Twenty years earlier, Paul-Henri Spaak had defended the opposite. As foreign minister in July 1936, he called for a foreign policy that was « exclusivement et intégralement belge »: exclusively and entirely Belgian. Spaak came from a politically committed family. His grandfather was Paul Janson, the liberal champion of the right to vote, and his mother, Marie Janson, became the first woman in the Belgian Senate in 1921. He himself started out as a fiery young socialist in the Belgian Workers' Party (BWP/POB), the forerunner of today's socialist parties. But in 1936 he took a cautious approach.

There was a reason: in March 1936, Germany had sent troops back into the Rhineland, and the old system of collective security lay in ruins. Belgium hoped to stay out of the next war by avoiding military alliances with anyone. In May 1940, that hope collapsed. Spaak fled with the Pierlot government to London after a bitter break with King Leopold III. In London, Spaak changed his mind. From 1944 he was already thinking about a customs union between Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. In September 1948, at the UN General Assembly in Paris, he told the Soviet delegation to its face that Western Europe was afraid. His conclusion: a small country is never safe on its own.

Why a small country made the best broker

Belgium could help shape Europe because it was small, not in spite of it. A big country with a plan creates suspicion. A small country with a plan creates curiosity. The idea of a single general market was not even Spaak's. The Dutch foreign minister Johan Willem Beyen sent it to his Benelux colleagues in April 1955. Together with Luxembourg's Joseph Bech, Spaak and Beyen turned it into a joint memorandum. On 20 May 1955, it reached the governments of France, West Germany and Italy.

Spaak brought what the others lacked: authority in the chair and an eloquence that could silence a room. In 1946 he had already presided over the first UN General Assembly. In 1949, he took on the role of president of the Council of Europe's assembly. France and Germany, still wary of each other twelve years after the war, could both talk to him. So can a small country be the architect of a big idea? Yes. But never the only architect. Spaak was the man who held the drawing together.

The Treaty of Rome through a humanist lens

From a secular humanist perspective, the Treaty of Rome is a turning point because it replaced violence between states with rules and negotiation. Twelve years after 1945, Germany and France put their names on the same document. From then on, no dynasty, no church and no national myth would hold Europe together, but agreements you can read, test and revise. Spaak's own U-turn fits this reading too, because free inquiry means 'do not believe, but investigate'. Spaak tested his neutrality policy against the reality of 1940 and dared to admit it had failed. Opponents called him fickle. An old comrade-in-arms wrote at his death in 1972 that his character was the opposite of what he was.

Yet this reading is critical. The treaty spoke of prosperity and freedom, but not for everyone. Part Four attached the member states' colonies to the market as associated territories, and the Belgian Congo and Rwanda-Burundi were on that list. The Congolese and Rwandans had no say in a treaty that dealt with their land and their trade. What is more, ministers and experts negotiated Europe behind château walls. That made it fast and efficient. It also made it distant, a criticism that still follows the Union today.

Spaak and the unanimity rule: a parallel for 2026

In January 1964, Paul-Henri Spaak told an audience in Strasbourg that he did not believe in the unanimity rule for large organisations. In his view, a large organisation cannot function if a single member can block everything. In 2026, this still sounds surprisingly relevant. Today's European Union has 27 member states, and it still takes most foreign policy decisions by unanimity. One country can block a decision that the other 26 support. This is a parallel, not an equation: the club of six in 1957 is not the union of today.

Still, Spaak's question stands, and it is especially painful for a small country. Unanimity protects the small against the big. But it also makes everyone hostage to a single veto. Spaak chose shared rules over the right of the strongest, or the most stubborn. Perhaps that is his real legacy. Being small is not a fate; it is a position. The only question is what you do with it: hide behind neutrality, as in 1936, or set the table for others, as in 1957.

Frequently asked questions

Why is Paul-Henri Spaak called a founding father of the EU?

Paul-Henri Spaak, as Belgian foreign minister, chaired the committee that produced the 1956 Spaak Report, the basis of the European Economic Community. He then chaired the negotiations at Val Duchesse near Brussels. On 25 March 1957, he signed the Treaty of Rome for Belgium. His strength was mediation: as the representative of a small country, he raised little suspicion.

What was the Spaak Report?

The Spaak Report is the report of 21 April 1956 that set out the main lines of a European common market and a European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom). It followed the Messina Conference of June 1955 and was named after its chairman, Paul-Henri Spaak. Pierre Uri and Hans von der Groeben did most of the drafting.

Why did Belgium choose neutrality in 1936?

Belgium, led in foreign policy by Paul-Henri Spaak, chose an independent, neutral course in 1936 because Germany's remilitarisation of the Rhineland had broken the European security system. Belgium hoped such a stance would keep it out of a new war. The German invasion of May 1940 ended that hope, and Spaak became a committed supporter of European cooperation.

What role did Benelux play in the Treaty of Rome?

The Benelux countries relaunched European integration after the setback of 1954. The idea of a general common market came from Dutch minister Johan Willem Beyen. Together with Paul-Henri Spaak and Luxembourg's Joseph Bech, he sent a joint memorandum to France, West Germany and Italy on 20 May 1955, which became the basis for the Messina Conference.

Did the Treaty of Rome include the Belgian Congo?

Yes, the Treaty of Rome included the Belgian Congo as an associated territory. Part Four linked the member states' colonies to the common market, and the Belgian Congo and Rwanda-Burundi were on that list. Their inhabitants had no say in the treaty. From a secular humanist reading, this is a clear blind spot in a treaty that spoke of freedom and prosperity.

What did Paul-Henri Spaak think about unanimity in Europe?

Paul-Henri Spaak did not believe in the unanimity rule for large organisations. He said so in a speech in Strasbourg in January 1964. In his view, a large organisation cannot work if one member can block everything, a debate that is still alive in the European Union.