Editing Paul-Henri Spaak (section)

=== Europe ===
[[File:Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F004456-0010, Karlspreis Aachen, Verleihung an Paul-Henri Spaak.jpg|thumb|Spaak photographed receiving the [[Charlemagne Prize]] in 1957]]
Spaak became a staunch supporter of regional cooperation and collective security after 1944. While still in exile in London, he promoted the creation of a customs union uniting Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg (see [[Benelux]]). In 1948 he helped organize a Congress that met in The Hague and pressed hard for the creation of the [[Council of Europe]]. In August 1949, at its first session, he was elected President of the Council of Europe's Consultative Assembly, where he helped develop a network of intergovernmental contacts in many fields, and did his best to encourage further steps towards a political body to unite Europe. However, after three years of patient cajoling at the Council of Europe, Spaak came to understand that the organization was not ready to move towards the united Europe that he dreamed of, and in December 1951 - after the Assembly rejected a proposal to set up a European "political authority" - he resigned, declaring his great regret at this missed [http://www.assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/Speeches/Speech-XML2HTML-EN.asp?SpeechID=271 opportunity]. But he continued to press for European integration as head of the [[European Movement]], and it was not long before he returned to the fray, in a new and more promising forum: from 1952 to 1953, he presided over the [[European Parliament|Common Assembly]] of the [[European Coal and Steel Community]], the body which was eventually to grow into the European Union.<ref>Sandro Guerrieri,  "From the Hague Congress to the Council of Europe: hopes, achievements and disappointments in the parliamentary way to European integration (1948–51)." ''Parliaments, Estates and Representation'' 34#2 (2014): 216–227.</ref>

But, as Spaak had shrewdly foreseen, tying the coal and steel industries of France and Germany together - at that time the two industries necessary to make war - was just the first step. His next goal was to expand the concept far beyond these two industries into a much wider economic body, which could in turn form the embryo of a political union. In 1955, the [[Messina Conference]] of European leaders appointed him as chairman of a preparatory committee ([[Spaak Committee]]) charged with the preparation of a report on the creation of a common European market. The so-called "[[Spaak Report]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://aei.pitt.edu/995/ |title=Spaak report |publisher=Aei.pitt.edu |access-date=2013-12-30}}</ref> " formed the cornerstone of the [[Intergovernmental Conference on the Common Market and Euratom]] at [[Castle of the Valley of the Duchess|Val Duchesse]] in 1956 and led to the signature, on 25 March 1957, of the [[Treaties of Rome]] establishing a [[European Economic Community]] and the [[European Atomic Energy Community]] (Euratom). Paul-Henri Spaak signed the treaty for Belgium, together with [[Jean Charles Snoy et d'Oppuers]]. It was a crowning achievement of decades of patient work, and his role in the creation of the EEC earned Spaak a place among the [[founding fathers of the European Union]].