(b. Nice, 13 July 1927) French; Minister of Health 1974 – 9, MEP 1979 – , President of the European Parliament (EP) 1979 – 85, Vice-President of the EP 1985 – 89, President of the Liberal Group of the EP 1984 – 89, First Minister of State (Deputy Premier) and Minister of Housing, Social Affairs, Health, and Development of Cities 1993 – 95, Member of the French Constitutional Court 1998 – One of four children in a Jewish family from Nice, Veil was taken prisoner in the Occupation and sent to Auschwitz; her mother, father, and brother all died in captivity. She returned in 1945 and took up study of law and political science to qualify as a judge in 1956 but she entered the Ministry of Justice to become involved in a number of humanitarian and women's issues and adviser to the Minister of Justice in 1969. President Giscard d'Estaing launched her political career by making her Minister of Health in 1974 in Chirac's first Cabinet. As the first woman full Minister of the Fifth Republic she introduced the Loi Veil legalizing abortion. A law opening access to contraception and to information about birth control was passed in December of 1974. In January of 1975 the law legalizing abortion was passed, and was the start of an enduring popularity (and of venomous attacks). Mme Veil also undertook to reform or tackle other health issues and the reform of social security. No respecter of persons, a popular but not populist minister, she once noted that there is nothing more boring than an election meeting. She was a campaigner for women's issues and for the "downtrodden in society" as well as a determined "centrist" moderate (she set up the Club Vauban to bring together centrists who were, she felt, under pressure from party extremists). She became increasingly at odds with the politics of Barre. She resigned in June 1979 to lead the centre Giscardian list for the European Parliament (against the Gaullists) and was immediately elected President of the new European Parliament. In 1984 she led a list of Gaullists and centrists (despite Giscard's pressure) and in 1989 led a centrist list against both the Gaullists and Giscard.
Simone Veil
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| Simone Veil DBE | |
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| In office July 1979 – 1982 |
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| Preceded by | Emilio Colombo |
| Succeeded by | Piet Dankert |
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| In office May 27, 1974 – July 4, 1979 |
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| President | Valery Giscard d'Estaing |
| Prime Minister | Jacques Chirac Raymond Barre |
| Preceded by | Michel Poniatowski |
| Succeeded by | Michel Poniatowski |
| In office March 29, 1993 – May 18, 1995 |
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| President | Francois Mitterrand |
| Prime Minister | Edouard Balladur |
| Deputy | Philippe Douste-Blazy |
| Preceded by | Bernard Kouchner |
| Succeeded by | Elisabeth Hubert |
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| Born | 13 July 1927 Nice, France |
| Political party | UDF, LDR |
| Spouse(s) | Antoine Veil |
| Profession | Lawyer, politician |
Simone Veil, DBE (born 13 July 1927) is a French lawyer and politician who served as Minister of Health under Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, President of the European Parliament and member of the Constitutional Council of France.
A survivor from the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp where she lost part of her family, she is the Honorary President of the Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah.
She was elected to the Académie française in November 2008.
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Early life
Veil was born Simone Annie Liline Jacob, the daughter of a Jewish architect in Nice, Alpes-Maritimes, France. In March 1944, Veil's family was deported, Simone, her mother and one sister to Auschwitz-Birkenau then Bergen-Belsen where her mother died shortly before the camp's 15 April 1945 liberation. Veil's father and brother also died in internment. Veil's other sister who had been arrested as a member of the Resistance survived her imprisonment in Ravensbruck. Veil returned to speak at Auschwitz-Birkenau in 2005 for the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the camps.
Having obtained her baccalauréat in 1943 before being deported, she began the study of law and political science, where she met her future husband Antoine Veil.
The couple married on 26 October 1946, and have three sons.
Veil became an attorney and worked for several years as a civil servant in the Ministry of Justice.
Political career
Minister of Health
From 1974 to 1979 she was Minister of Health in the governments of prime ministers Jacques Chirac and Raymond Barre. She pushed forward the following notable laws:
- Making access to contraception easier (December 4, 1974) – the sale of contraceptives such as the combined oral contraceptive pill had been made legal in 1967.
- Legalizing abortion (17 January 1975), her hardest political fight, and the one for which she is best-known. However, in June 2007, in a France 2 interview, she claimed that science is proving the existence of life from conception: "It is increasingly evident scientifically that from conception we are dealing with a living being."[1]
European Parliament
Veil was elected as a Member of the European Parliament in the 1979 European election. In its first session, the new Parliament elected Veil as its President, which she served as until 1982.[2] As well as being the first president of the elected Parliament, she was the first female President since the Parliament was created in 1952. In 1981, Veil won the prestigious Charlemagne Prize. She was re-elected in the 1984 election and became the leader of the Liberal Democrat group until 1989. She was re-elected for the last time in the 1989 election, standing down in 1993.[2]
Between 1984 and 1992 she served on the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, and the Committee on Political Affairs. After standing down from these committees she served on the Committee on Foreign Affairs and its related Subcommittee on Human Rights. Between 1989 and 1993 she was also a member of Parliament's delegation to the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly, serving as its vice-chairwoman until 1992.[2]
Member of the Constitutional Council
In 1998, she was appointed to the Constitutional Council. In 2005, she put herself briefly on leave from the Council in order to campaign in favour of the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe. This action was criticized, because it seems to contradict the legal provisions that members of the council should keep a distance from partisan politics: the independence and impartiality of the council would be jeopardized, critics said, if members can put themselves "on leave" in order to campaign for such or such project.
In 2003, she was elected to the Board of Directors of the International Criminal Court's Trust Fund for Victims.[3]
In 2005 she was awarded with the Prince of Asturias Award in International Cooperation.
In 2007, she was awarded the North-South Prize of the Council of Europe.
In 2007, Veil surprised many observers by declaring her support for the right-wing presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy. She was by his side on the day after he received 31 percent of the vote in the first round of the presidential elections that year.
Criticism
In a letter to then Polish President Aleksander Kwaśniewski, Yehuda Levin, an ultra-Orthodox rabbi from Brooklyn, on behalf of the haredi New York City-based Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada criticized Veil's presence in 2005 at the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of Auschwitz's liberation: ‘... Veil [an Auschwitz survivor] – the orthodox rabbis said – was to be held responsible for a mass murder of human life far exceeding that of the German National Socialists by legalizing and promoting abortion.’[4]
Political career
Member of the Constitutional Council of France : 1998-2007
Governmental functions
Minister of Health, Social security, and Family : 1974-1979 (Became member of European Parliament in 1979)
Minister of State, minister of Health, Social affairs, and City : 1993-1995
Electoral mandates
President of European Parliament : 1979-1982 (Elected member in 1979)
Member of European Parliament : 1982-1984
References
- ^ [1]June 14, 2007 "Il est de plus en plus évident scientifiquement que, dès la conception, il s'agit d'un être vivant."
- ^ a b c [2], European Parliament website
- ^ Amnesty International, 12 September 2003, Amnesty International welcomes the election of a Board of Directors. Accessed 1 August 2007.
- ^ About the scandalous participation of pro-abortion politicians in the commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz
| Preceded by ' |
Constitutional Council of France 1998–2007 |
Succeeded by Renaud Denoix de Saint Marc |
| European Parliament | ||
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| Preceded by ' |
Member of the European Parliament 1979-1993 |
Succeeded by ' |
| Cultural offices | ||
| Preceded by Pierre Messmer |
Académie française Seat 13 2008– |
Succeeded by Incumbent |
| Awards | ||
| Preceded by Emilio Colombo |
Karlspreis 1982 |
Succeeded by King Juan Carlos of Spain |
| Preceded by ERASMUS programme |
Prince of Asturias Awards 2005 |
Succeeded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation |
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 | Political Biography. A Dictionary of Political Biography. Copyright © 1998, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more |
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