Marga Klompé, born in 1912 in Arnhem in the Netherlands, was a great advocate for the Council of Europe on both a national and international level. She was the first woman minister in the Netherlands, known as one of the main advocates for and also as the bedrock of the modern Dutch welfare state. Present at the first-ever Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe meeting, Marga Klompé was one of the first few women active within the Council of Europe.
Her devotion to the Council of Europe was clear in many aspects, as she was labelled both a “Strasbourger in heart and kidneys” and “one of the most important political figures” of the Council of Europe in the 1950s. In her first speech in the Dutch House of Representatives in 1949, she emphasised the importance of European cooperation through the Council of Europe: “Through [the Council of Europe], a seed is sown for a new community, a seed that is still quite modest, but can grow into a true European community in the future”.
She was a big advocate for European unity, as with the Council of Europe they aimed to “create European unity and to defend the heritage from the past”. This was paired with their aim to create “a better world and future for our children”. The relationship between the Council of Europe and the ECSG was also essential in harbouring European unity for Klompé, and she aimed to make accession to the European Coal and Steel Community as attractive as possible for Council of Europe members.
The project “75 women in 75 years of Council of Europe history” is organised by the Delegation of the European Union to the Council of Europe with the Council of Europe and the Permanent Representations of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
