Editing Paul-Henri Spaak (section)

==Post-World War II domestic policies==
After the war, he was Minister of Foreign Affairs under the subsequent ministers [[Achille Van Acker]] and [[Camille Huysmans]]. He was twice appointed Prime Minister as well, first from 13 to 31 March 1946, the shortest government in Belgian history, and again from March 1947 to August 1949. During his last government, two important pieces of housing legislation were enacted. The De Taeye Act of 1948<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tPpGU20Pd8YC&pg=PA6|title=Cost C16, Improving the Quality of Existing Urban Building Envelopes: Needs|last=Melgaard|first=Ebbe|date=2007-01-01|publisher=IOS Press|isbn=9781586037352|language=en}}</ref> 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.<ref>Peter Flora, ''Growth to Limits. The Western European Welfare States Since World War II'' .</ref> Under a law of 16th of June 1947 holiday duration was tripled for under 18 year olds, and doubled for those between the ages of 18 and 21.<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=https://bib.kuleuven.be/rbib/collectie/archieven/arbbl/1986-100jaarsociaalrecht.pdf|title=HONDERD JAAR SOCIAAL RECHT IN BELGIË ARBEIDSBLAD 1886/1887 - 1986/1987}}</ref> Holiday pay was also doubled for the first week by the law of August the 10th 1947.<ref name="auto"/>

A bill on war damage, agreed upon in October 1947, stipulated that owners of homes damaged by the war and took the initiative to restore them were entitled to compensation.<ref name="BullockVerpoest2011">{{cite book|author1=Nicholas Bullock|author2=Luc Verpoest|title=Living with History, 1914 – 1964: la Reconstruction en Europe Après la Première Et la Seconde Guerre Mondiale Et Le Rôle de la Conservation Des Monuments Historiques|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P84es4zwTiAC&pg=PA263|year=2011|publisher=Leuven University Press|isbn=978-90-5867-841-6|pages=263–}}</ref> In 1948, voting rights for women were introduced.<ref name="Adams2014">{{cite book|author=Jad Adams|title=Women and the Vote: A World History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WfD8AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA290|year=2014|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-870684-7|pages=290–}}</ref> An Act providing for the establishment of works councils was promulgated in September 1948,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0myRa9K4jvIC&pg=PA160|title=International Labour Law Reports|last1=Bar-Niv|first1=Zvi H.|last2=Aaron|first2=B.|last3=Elmann|first3=Peter|date=1979-10-11|publisher=Martinus Nijhoff Publishers|isbn=9028602798|language=en}}</ref> while a school building fund was set up that same year "to supply the material needs of secondary education."<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fRxMAAAAYAAJ|title=Bulletin of the International Bureau of Education|date=1958-01-01|publisher=The Bureau|language=en}}</ref> Also in 1948, the multilateral school was introduced.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xKJYAAAAYAAJ|title=Western European Education|date=1972-01-01|publisher=International Arts & Sciences Press|language=en}}</ref>

Various measures were also introduced to improve working conditions in mines. A decree of September 1947 introduced the compulsory establishment of mine safety services and safety and health committees in all mines, while another Decree issued that same month revised and expanded the provisions related to hygiene installations, medical examination, rescue, and first aid.<ref>SAFETY IN COAL MINES VOLUME I: Organisation on the National and International Levels, International Labour Office, Geneva, 1953.</ref> Order of the regent regulating the use of explosives in undertakings other than mines and underground quarries dated 31 March 1949 “ deals with the loading, priming, tamping, firing and signalling of shots and policing of the area; certain special types of shotfiring such as firing in a confined space or underwater; incomplete explosions and misfires; liquid air or liquid oxygen explosives and the use of detonating fuses; supervision of the use of explosives; the reporting of accidents and incidents.”<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ilo.org/public/libdoc/ilo/P/09611/09611(1949-25).pdf|title=SAFETY SURVEY, VOLUME XXV, 1949}}</ref> Automatic indexation of 95% of wages was provided from 1948 onwards,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6WxZAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA172|title=Wage Setting, Social Pacts and the Euro: A New Role for the State|last=Hassel|first=Anke|date=2006-01-01|publisher=Amsterdam University Press|isbn=9789053569191|language=en}}</ref> while women were provided with access to the magistracy from 1948 onwards.<ref name="google">{{cite book|title=Women in Law and Lawmaking in Nineteenth and Twentieth-Century Europe|author=Schandevyl, P.E.|date=2014|publisher=Ashgate Publishing Limited|isbn=9781472403483|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-7BUBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA27|page=27|access-date=2017-02-03}}</ref>

In December 1948, an Act was passed that replaced the National Society for War Orphans with the National Society for Orphans, Widows and Ascendants of War Victims.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WChTLvxJcmUC|title=Report on Family, Child and Youth Welfare|last=Affairs|first=United Nations Dept of Social|date=1951-01-01|language=en}}</ref> Various measures were also introduced to improve working conditions in the mining industry. From June 1947 onward, all young workers under the age of 18 became entitled to three weeks' annual paid leave, while workers between the ages of 18 and 21 became entitled to at least a fortnight. In September 1947, Orders were promulgated providing for the supervision of health and hygiene in mines, surface mines and quarries.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://staging.ilo.org/public/libdoc/ilo/1948/48B09_43_engl.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=11 October 2015 |archive-date=4 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304063507/http://staging.ilo.org/public/libdoc/ilo/1948/48B09_43_engl.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> In June 1948, legislation was introduced that doubled holiday remuneration for workers, and in August 1948 a law was passed that introduced nonconfessional moral instruction in secondary education.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oTeBTZVlt5gC|title=Educating Citizens: International Perspectives on Civic Values and School Choice|last1=Wolf|first1=Patrick J.|last2=Macedo|first2=Stephen|date=1 January 2004|publisher=Brookings Institution Press|isbn=0815795165|language=en}}</ref> Company and sector-based joint committees were alsoestablished by a social law, with work councils in big companies needing to be consulted whenever economic issues with a social impact were tackled.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n4Em8G76kbkC&dq=The+Spaak+government+did+not+neglect+the+social+aspect+of+the+economy&pg=PA233|title=Political History of Belgium: From 1830 Onwards|first1=Els|last1=Witte|first2=Jan|last2=Craeybeckx|first3=Alain|last3=Meynen|date=22 February 2009|publisher=Asp / Vubpress / Upa|via=Google Books|page=233}}</ref>