Karel De Gucht
Karel Lodewijk Georgette Emmerence De Gucht ( born January 27, 1954 in Overmere, today Berlare ) is a Flemish- Belgian lawyer and politician (Flemish Liberals and Democrats ). From 2004 to 2009 he was a Belgian foreign minister. He is since 2010 European Commissioner for Trade in the European Commission Barroso II
Life and political career
De Gucht is a farmer's son from Overmere. He received his diploma in 1971 at the Athénée Royal of Aalst in East Flanders, 1976, he earned his law license at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. In addition to his lawyer career, he was also active in politics. De Gucht is a member of a Masonic Lodge.
Karel De Gucht is a member of the Flemish Liberals and Democrats party, whose chairman he was from 1999 to 2004. From 1980 to 1994 he was Member of the European Parliament, 1994-1995 of the Belgian Senate, from 1995 to 2003 by Parliament of the Flemish Community. In the 2003 parliamentary elections, he was elected to the Belgian Chamber of Deputies and was since July 18, 2004 Foreign Minister, first under Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt and since 2008, Yves Leterme and Herman Van Rompuy. With the change in the European Commission he has given up the post of foreign minister. He was succeeded by Yves Leterme.
In 2006, De Gucht was chairman of the OSCE. With effect from July 17, 2009 appointed him, the EU Commission 's successor, Louis Michel, European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid.
Since February 2010 he has been Commissioner for Trade.
In 2010, De Gucht attended the Bilderberg Conference.
Private life
Karel de Gucht is married to Mireille Schreurs, police judge in Aalst. Jean -Jacques De Gucht, Member of the Senate belgischens, is their son.
Controversies
On a trip to Africa in 2004, De Gucht sparked a diplomatic upset, as he said, there was a problem with the political class of the Democratic Republic of Congo. He drew the government's ability to doubt, to fight corruption After President Joseph Kabila 's government characterized as chaotic, gave him the Minister of Information Henri Mova Sakanyi racism and colonial nostalgia before and compared it with " Tintin in the Congo ". De Gucht declined to withdraw his statement.
In June of 2005, caused De Gucht a diplomatic upset when he likened the Prime Minister of the Netherlands Jan Peter Balkenende as a mixture of Harry Potter and a rigid Bourgois without charisma.
In 2007 he said in an interview with Flanders info on the Treaty of Lisbon, the aim of the Constitutional Treaty was to be read, is the goal of this ( current ) contract to be unreadable. The Constitution had clarity to the target while the present treaty had to be unclear. This was a success.
In November 2008, when De Gucht was Minister of the Belgian Federal Government, he was accused of insider trading in a case of imminent insolvency and subsequent nationalization and sale of Fortis Bank.
On 3 October 2008, his wife Mireille Schreurs and brother in law sold their share at Fortis Bank after a crisis meeting of the government to deal with the precarious position of the Bank, hours before it was made public that the Dutch branch of the bank was nationalized and the partly verstaatlicheten Luxembourg and Belgian parts of the bank would be sold to BNP Paribas.
In an interview with the public radio station VRT about the peace process in Palestine and the Washington talks in September 2010, De Grucht showed skepticism about the peace process. He stated that one should not underestimate the Jewish lobby on Capitol Hill. It is the best organized lobby, you should not underestimate its influence on ( grip on) the American policy, with no role to play, whether it be Republilkaner or Democrats. He continued, one should not underestimate the opinion of the Jews outside Israel. There were among the most faith, it was different almost impossible to describe, that they were in the right. A belief is difficult to meet with rational arguments. It is not so important whether there are religious Jews or not. Even non-religious Jews shared the same faith, to be right. Therefore, it is difficult, even with moderate Jews to have a rational discussion about what is really going on in the Middle East. It was a very emotional issue. " The European Jewish Congress ( EJC ) described the remarks as anti-Semitic and demanded an apology. De Gucht responded that he had expressed his personal opinion, and regretted that she had been misunderstood. He made it clear that it disagreed with anti-Semitism. His remarks were set by the Simon Wiesenthal Center in 2010 on the list of Top Ten Anti-Semitic/Anti-Israel Slurs ".
In April 2012 he was attacked for saying that Ireland was already out of the recession, even though Ireland still had 15 % unemployment.
In November 2013 De Gucht was for tax evasion angeklagt.De Gucht looks in the profits from a sale of shares in 1996, a tax-free business, as the speculation period had expired before the sale.
Official leadership as Commissioner for Trade at the European Commission
Greece
In May 2012, he announced that the European Central Bank and the European Commission to emergency scenarios work in the event that it is not just Greece. The state of Greece stand at the agreements on savings and reforms, "it was the only rational option ." He warned of the " endgame ".
ACTA
De Gucht was a proponent of the international trade agreement ACTA. On 1 March 2012, he acted as Trade Commissioner at an event in the European Parliament, the side of the proponents of the public ACTA.Der exclusive negotiating style and the influence of lobbyists was criticized.
Punitive tariffs on Chinese solar modules
De Gucht advocated in 2013 against objections of Germany and other EU member states to impose punitive tariffs against China for dumping in trade with solar panels.
TTIP
As chief negotiator with the United States to the Transatlantic Free Trade Agreement TTIP De Gucht strongly of the view that this agreement was a growth engine that creates new jobs. This is called into question by well-known critics such as Gabriel Felbermayr from Ifo Institute for Economic Research. Furthermore, De Gucht lack of transparency of the negotiations is accused.
On strong criticism came in France his statement of 6 March 2013, an interview with Le Monde, France is not a country of free trade. He criticized Minister Arnaud Montebourg regarding the Free Trade Agreement as too defensive.
On January 20, 2014 De Gucht decided to suspend parts of the free trade talks for three months, since critical questions, such as the protection of investments, would have to be clarified.