Education
Spaak entered the Université Libre de Bruxelles, where he studied law.
Spaak entered the Université Libre de Bruxelles, where he studied law.
Paul-Henri Spaak served as Prime Minister of Belgium (1938–1939, 1946 and 1947–1949), as the first President of the United Nations General Assembly (1946–1957), as the first President of the Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community (1952–1954), and as the second Secretary General of NATO (1957–1961).
During his last government, two important pieces of housing legislation were enacted. The De Taeye Act of 1948 organised fiscal rebates, credit facilities, and premiums for social dwellings built either on private or public initiative, while the Brunfaut Act of 1949 established a central budgeting organisation for governmental social housing policy, shifted the financial burden of infrastructural works to the state, and organised the financing of the two National Housing Societies.
He may be considered one of the Founding fathers of the European Union due to his role in the creation of the European Economic Community.
Spaak also played an important role in choosing Brussels as the new seat of the Alliance's headquarters in 1966. This was also the year of his last European campaign, when he played an important conciliatory role in resolving the "empty chair crisis" by helping to bring France back into the European fold.
In 1944 Paul-Henri Spaak became a leader of the Belgian Socialist Party.
