Diplomatic World_nummer 58_Online

VIEWS OF MARK EYSKENS
ON THE BENELUX AND
ON CURRENT EUROPEAN
AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
FORMER BELGIAN PRIME MINISTER
AND MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
MORE THAN 60 YEARS OF BENELUX
In fact the 60th birthday of BENELUX could be fake news.
Actually the BENELUX is much older. The idea of creating
a bond started already at the end of the Second World War
in London when the three governments of Belgium, the
Netherlands and Luxemburg, were in exile in London and
realized that a new form of cooperation and an intense
relationship starting from an economic and commercial
union would be necessary to protect the interests of the
three countries. But also financially it could be a tool to
coordinate the fluctuations of the rates of exchange of
the involved currencies. These ideas were in a later phase
implemented in European treaties and today we could state
that the BENELUX started as an experimental lab for the
later integration of the European Union. The BENELUX
was an incubator for what later happened. The most
important treaty related to the BENELUX celebrated its
60th anniversary a few weeks ago in Brussels.
EUROPEAN INTEGRATION AND THE IDEA
OF SUBSIDIARITY
During this period European Summits were organised
with only 12 member states: it was in the years just before
and after the Cold War. Ministers knew each other in a
very intimate way: we phoned each other in a direct way,
before smartphones existed and we met on a regular basis
face-to-face, formally but also informal. Sometimes in
beautiful castles and other enclosed environments where
confidentiality was the rule. These first confidential meetings
were called the gimmick meetings, always following the
Chatham House Rule, where the presence of the participants
was not disclosed. Journalists were far away. We succeeded
in breakthrough compromises that were at the end essential
for the future development of the European Union.
16
As far as the BENELUX University Center (B.U.C.) is
concerned: this is a rather old idea. It stems from the
Netherlands and was created by Professor van der Geld
who is a very dynamic man. He is in fact a psychologist and
involved in coaching people and organizations. His idea was
to have the BENELUX idea imbedded in university circles,
to make professors of the three countries disperse their
ideas to students of the other countries. I have an important
chair in the B.U.C. and from time to time I am invited in the
Netherlands, Belgium or in Luxembourg to explain the state
and activities of the BENELUX. When I was a minister —
I have been active in different Belgian governments for 16
years — I was always impressed by the coherence and the
creativity of the BENELUX.
Mark Eyskens