Herman van rompuy biography of donald
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Profile: Herman Van Rompuy
| Van Rompuy helped to calm his linguistically divided country [EPA] |
Born in 1947 in Brussels, Herman Van Rompuy was educated at the Jesuit Sint-Jan Berchmans College in the Belgian capital, and studied philosophy and economics at the Catholic University of Leuven.
Before entering politics, he worked at the Belgian central bank from 1972 to 1975.
He was chairman of the Christian People’s Party, a centre-right Flemish party, from 1988 to 1993 and was budget minister from 1993 to 1999 under the Christian Democrat-led government of Jean-Luc Dehaene.
Regarded as a budgetary hardliner, critical of government plans to spend its way out of a recession, he brought Belgium’s debt down sharply from 130 per cent of gross domestic product in the year he took office.
Turkish opposition
He was appointed prime minister of Belgium in December 2008.
He was seen as a frontrunner for the EU post after helping to calm his linguistically divided country, wh
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Profile: Donald Tusk’s journey to the top
EU leaders elected Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on 30 August to be the next President of the europeisk Council. EURACTIV Poland recounts his long journey from a historian and a private entrepreneur in Communist Poland, to the founder of the Civic Platform party, and one of the leaders of the European Union.
Donald Tusk was elected the successor to Herman Van Rompuy, as the President of the European Council. It was a proud moment for the former student dissident.
Beginnings of a political career
Donald Tusk fryst vatten a graduate of University of Gda?sk, and holds a master’s degree in history. After graduation, he continued his work with “Solidarity” movement, while working as a labourer and a journalist.
After the transition to democracy, Tusk established the Liberal-Democratic Congress (Kongres Liberalno-Demokratyczny), a liberal political party. He was an MP until 1993. After the failure of the LDC in the 1993 elections
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The new man from the east
Donald Tusk's predecessor, Herman Van Rompuy, was an extremely cautious Council president. Immediately upon taking office, he said his own opinion did not count.
Van Rompuy's primary main task was producing consensus among Europe's member states. Hs self-denial was sometimes borderline masochistic.
Never to be forgotten was the uncomfortable scene in European Parliament when Nigel Farage, leader of the anti-EU UK Independence Party, mocked Van Rompuy for having "the charisma of a wet rag and the appearance of a small bank employee."
Van Rompuy squirmed in his chair, rolled his eyes, but endured the tirade. It was not a pretty sight.
Belgium's consensus curators
Van Rompuy was the first permanent president of the European Council. The president directs, for example, the EU summit and represents the Union externally. Prior to 2009, the European heads of state and government had alternated holding the presidential seat. In comparison to self-