Dirk Uipko Stikker

Nationality

Netherlands

Date of Birth

1897

Date of Death

1979

Political
Preference

Conservative liberal

Dirk Stikker was a Dutch politician and diplomat. Stikker studied law and later began a career in the banking sector. He was the director of Heineken International from 1935 to 1948. In 1945 he was one of the founders of Dutch Labour Foundation, laying the foundation for post-war collective bargaining in the Netherlands. In the same year, Stikker entered politics and was elected into the Dutch Senate and in 1946 he co-founded the Freedom Party (Partij van de Vrijheid), a conservative-liberal political party that was later absorbed into the Peoples Party for Freedom and Democracy (Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie, VVD). Stikker was the first chairman of the VVD. In 1948, he became Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Stikker was an advocate for economic integration in Europe, an idea which he supported through the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC). He combining his idea of a free-market area with ideas of market regulation. This pragmatic approach earned him great respect as a within the OEEC. In June 1950, Stikker presented a ‘Plan of Action’ for the future of economic cooperation in the OEEC, which became known as the ‘Stikker Plan’. It proposed an industry-by-industry approach to integration in Western Europe, beginning with basic industries such as agriculture and keeping in mind their usefulness for international trade. According to the Plan, the objectives of these reforms would be an increase in living standards, stable, high employment levels, as well as a balance of payment equilibrium between Western Europe and the rest of the world.

He also proposed a European integration fund. The Stikker Plan was opposed by the Economic Cooperation Administration (ECA), which favored trade liberalization, and though Stikker’s plan was too protectionist. Yet it was an influential plan in the discussions over European integration the shaping of a common market. In 1954, the Stikker Plan was rebranded as the Beyen Plan (after Foreign Minister Wim Beyen). Beyen – who let go of Stikker’s sectoral approach – proposed the creation of a common market. This idea was later taken up by Paul-Henri Spaak, and eventually led to the creation of the European Economic Community (EEC).

In April 1961, Stikker succeeded Paul-Henri Spaak as Secretary General of NATO.