Roger Jean Henri Motz

Nationality

Belgium

Date of Birth

1904

Date of Death

1964

Political
Preference

Liberal

Roger Motz was a Belgian politician in the Liberal Party and Senator of the Brussels parliament. During the war, Motz was in London, where he was a member of Hubert Pierlot’s government-in-exile. In this time, he interacted with men like Marcel-Henri Jaspar – the Belgian Minister of Health, and later ambassador to the Czechoslovak government-in-exile – as well as Polish ‘informal diplomat’ Joseph Retinger. Motz was sympathetic to Retinger’s ideas on post-war European economic cooperation, and after the war he joined the Belgian committee for the European League for Economic Cooperation (ELEC).

From 1945 to 1953, Motz also served as the President of the Liberal Party, and again from 1958 to 1961. In this capacity, he was responsible for the financial and economic program of the party. He was also President of Liberal International from 1952 to 1958. Motz was a member of the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe from 1949 to 1964 and in May 1953, became the vice-president of the first liberal group formed within the Consultative Assembly. At the Assembly, Motz presented a report on the plans for a Customs Union between member states of the Council of Europe, and the creation of a so-called ‘Low Tariff Club’.