Jean Rey

Nationality

Belgium

Date of Birth

1902

Date of Death

1983

Political
Preference

Liberal

Jean Rey, son of a Swiss Protestant minister who had moved to Belgium, graduated with a PhD from Liège University in 1926. His political career started a decade later, when he was first chosen as a City Councillor and later as an MP for Liège. Captured and interned as a POW in World War II, he returned to his homeland and became the Minister of Reconstruction in 1949. Although he served less than one year in this office, it was during this time that he became personally involved in the negotiations for the establishment of the ECSC. In 1949 and 1953 he served as substitute member to the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe.

His Protestant background led to his entry in ECEC in 1950 as well. In 1954, he once more became Minister, this time of Economic Affairs. In that capacity, Rey was the Belgian government’s representative in the transformation of the ECSC into the European Economic Community (EEC). He then joined this new institution as Commissioner for Trade in 1958 and took up the Commission Presidency in 1967. During his tenure as President, the European Customs Union reached completion. At the occasion, he brought his political and ecumenical interests together, remarking, “Two great spiritual developments dominate this second half of the twentieth century: the reconciliation of the churches and the reconciliation of the peoples.”