Louis Michel

Congo was a Belgian colony between 1908 and 1960.

Since then, the relations between Brussels and Kinshasa have been tumultuous.

Louis Michel (born 2 September 1947) is a Belgian politician.

His family moved from Hoegaarden to Zétrud-Lumay in 1955.

They have included such events as the secession of Katanga backed by Belgium, the murder of the Prime Minister Lumumba by the Belgian secret services, the expulsion of the Belgian ambassador in the 1960s, the banning of the Sabena company from landing in Kinshasa, and "authentic Zaïrian" policy.

The father of Joseph Kabila, Laurent-Désiré Kabila had very bad relations with Brussels.

The Michel family comes from the Flemish town Hoegaarden, just across the 1963 official linguistic border and the frontier between the present (since 1994 ) provinces of Flemish Brabant and Walloon Brabant.

There, it has been nicknamed from the XIXth century onward as the ‘Sellekes’.

Louis Michel "went to school in Hoegaarden and still speaks perfectly the local dialect".

From 1967 to 1977, Michel was chairman of the Young Liberals in the district of Nivelles.

From 1968 to 1978, before dedicating his life to his political career, Michel taught English, Dutch and German in the Provincial School of Jodoigne, a rural town 25 miles from Brussels.

Then he became alderman in Jodoigne from 1977 to 1983, "secretary-general" of the Parti Réformateur Libéral (PRL) political party from 1980 to 1982 and chairman of the PRL from 1982 to 1990 and from 1995 to 1999.

He was a member of the Belgian federal parliament as a representative (1978–1999).

He is also the mayor of the municipality of Jodoigne in Walloon Brabant and has been since 1983.

He served in the government of Belgium as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1999 to 2004 and was European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid from 2004 to 2009.

Michel was the Belgian foreign minister and Vice Prime Minister from 1999 to 2004.

During his time in office, he pursued former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet for crimes against humanity and played an active role in trying to bring peace to the war-weary Great Lakes region of central Africa.

Michel has been interested in the Central Africa situation and busy with the Democratic Republic of the Congo dossier since he became Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs (1999–2004) and European Commissioner in charge of the Development & Humanitarian Aid in the Barroso Commission.

Many rumours accuse Louis Michel of having used Joseph Kabila as a puppet since his father was murdered in 2001.

Therefore, the media has described in a very suspicious way the good relations between Louis Michel and Joseph Kabila.

Since 2001, Michel has encouraged the peace process for the Democratic Republic of the Congo that officially put an end to the Second Congo War by establishing a Transitional government (June 2003 – June 2006).

In July 2004, the Verhofstadt government appointed Michel as its candidate for the Belgian seat on the European Commission led by José Manuel Durão Barroso, to replace former commissioner Philippe Busquin.

He was nominated on 12 August 2004 to become EU commissioner starting in November 2004.

As part of a political agreement, Busquin resigned early in September 2004 to give Louis Michel an early opportunity to serve on the European Commission.

Michel completed Busquin's term as the European Commissioner for Science and Research and then served as the European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Development.

In 2006, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed him to a High-level Panel on United Nations Systemwide Coherence, which was set up to explore how the United Nations system could work more coherently and effectively across the world in the areas of development, humanitarian assistance and the environment.

The two main missions of this government were to maintain the peace by integrating all the militias into the unified army and to bring the country to elections on 30 June 2006 having ratified the new constitution by referendum.

Michel withdrew himself from the Commission between the 12 May and the 10 June 2007 to take care of his political party because of the elections of 10 June 2007.

Michel is also a member of the Fondation Chirac's honour committee, ever since the foundation was launched in 2008 by former French president Jacques Chirac to promote world peace.

In a lecture on 17 January 2008 (entitled Africa-Europe: the indispensable partnership) at the London School of Economics, Michel faced Congolese protestors who accused him of being complicit in Kabila's assassination and installing a puppet government in the Congo.

The meeting was abandoned shortly before its scheduled end as the chair found it impossible to continue with the interruptions.

From 2009 to 2019, he was a Member of the European Parliament.

Michel is a prominent member of the French-speaking liberal party, the Mouvement Réformateur.

He is the father of Charles Michel, the previous Prime Minister of Belgium and current President of the European Council.

He resigned as Commissioner in July 2009 to become a Member of the European Parliament.

Throughout his time as Member of the European Parliament, Michel served on the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs.

From 2016 until 2017, he was part of the Committee of Inquiry into Money Laundering, Tax Avoidance and Tax Evasion (PANA) that investigated the Panama Papers revelations and tax avoidance schemes more broadly.

In addition to his committee assignments, Michel co-presided over the ACP–EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly which advises on the orientations of co-operation policies between the EU and its partners in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific.

He was also a member of the European Parliament Intergroup on LGBT Rights; the European Parliament Intergroup on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights; and the Campaign for the Establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly, an organisation which campaigns for democratic reformation of the United Nations, and the creation of a more accountable international political system.

He supported the MEP Heart Group, a group of parliamentarians who have an interest in promoting measures that will help reduce the burden of cardiovascular diseases (CVD).