Karel de Gucht
| Karel De Gucht | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| European Commissioner for Trade | |
|
In office 9 February 2010 – 1 November 2014 |
|
| President | José Manuel Barroso |
| Preceded by | Benita Ferrero-Waldner (Trade and Neighbourhood Policy) |
| Succeeded by | Cecilia Malmström |
| European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid | |
|
In office 17 July 2009 – 9 February 2010 |
|
| President | José Manuel Barroso |
| Preceded by | Louis Michel |
| Succeeded by |
Andris Piebalgs (Development) Kristalina Georgieva (International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response) |
| Minister of Foreign Affairs | |
|
In office 18 July 2004 – 17 July 2009 |
|
| Prime Minister |
Guy Verhofstadt Yves Leterme Herman Van Rompuy |
| Preceded by | Louis Michel |
| Succeeded by | Yves Leterme |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
27 January 1954 Overmere, Belgium |
| Political party | Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats |
| Spouse(s) | Mireille Schreurs |
| Children | Frédéric Jean-Jacques |
| Alma mater | Free University of Brussels, Dutch |
| Website | www |
Karel Lodewijk Georgette Emmerence De Gucht (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈkarəl də ˈɣɵxt]; born 27 January, 1954) is a Belgian politician who was the European Commissioner for Trade from February 2010 until 31 October 2014. Previously, he served as Belgium's Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2004 to 2009 and as the European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response from 2009 to 2010.
De Gucht was born in Overmere, Belgium. He entered politics at a young age, and became president of the Flemish Liberal Students while studying at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Brussels. He graduated with a master's degree in Law and practised as a lawyer, mainly in commercial matters, at the bar of Ghent. He later taught European Law at his university.
He became a member of the European Parliament in 1980 and fulfilled this mandate until 1994. In 1989 he was the rapporteur of a landmark Parliamentary Declaration on the Fundamental Rights, leading eventually to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which was later integrated as an essential part of the Treaty of Lisbon.
He entered the Flemish Parliament after the elections of 1994 and moved to the Belgian Federal Parliament in 2003, where he remained until 2004. In 1999 he was elected party president of the Flemish liberal party (Open Vlaamse Liberalen en Democraten). Although he was elected to the Federal Parliament in the general election on 18 May 2003 and to the European Parliament in the elections of June 2004, he occupied the first seat only very briefly and the second not at all.
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