In memoriam: Karel Van Miert (1942-2009)

*This article is an automatic translation of the original article, provided here for your convenience. Read the original article. Karel Van Miert, a Flemish socialist and pacifist activist in the 1970s and 1980s, then member and Vice-President of the European Commission in the 1990s, died on 22 June 2009 following an accident at home in his 67th year. Born on 17 January 1942 into a family of modest Flemish farmers in Oud-Turnhout, in the province of Antwerp, he was marked in his early childhood by the suffering inflicted on the civilian population by the defeated German army, which was to determine his deep European federalist commitment. One of the great builders of the European Union, who was unanimously hailed, both on the left and on the right, is disappearing. Karel van Miert