8 May 2002: The EPP-ED Group pays homage to Leo Tindemans on the occasion of his 80th birthday

A ceremony will take place in the European Parliament on May 8 to mark the 80th birthday of the European statesman Leo Tindemans, former Prime Minister of Belgium. He was also a co-founder in 1976 of the European People's Party, its president subsequently chairman of the EPP Group in the European Parliament.

The EPP-ED Group takes special pleasure in marking the 80th birthday of one of the great figures in the history of European integration and of the Christian Democratic movement.

Tindemans' hugely influential Report on the European Union (1976) earned him the lasting nickname of "Mr Europe". It was to shape the whole course of European integration.

The (then) EEC's December 1974 Paris Summit had charged Tindemans with defining "an integral concept of European union". The report was typical of the Tindemans style - a practical programme of small steps, reinforcing existing institutions relying on a solid trans-national consensus.

But his vision was far from unambitious. It is a measure of his prescience that today they sound rather familiar: a "People's Europe" designed to usher in a European culture excluding no-one; Economic and Monetary Union; a European Central Bank; a real Common Foreign and Security Policy.

He served as President of the EPP parliamentary Group from 1992 to 1994. Thanks to the Maastricht Treaty which Tindemans himself had done so much to shape, it was a position with considerable influence.

His influence continues. In 1995 he set up, with Michel Rocard, Ted Turner, George Soros, the International Crisis Group as an early warning system for imminent global catastrophes.


Curriculum vitae   

Photos 

Press release 9 May 2002   

Links:

Tindemans Report
Source: EP Information office Lisboa

Info-Europe:
Leo Tindemans, L'homme, ses actions