- Miet Smet
-
Miet Smet 
Senator In office
12 July 2007 – June 2010Member of the Flemish Parliament Incumbent Assumed office
2004Member of the European Parliament In office
1999–2004Personal details Born 5 April 1943
Sint-NiklaasNationality Belgian Political party Christen-Democratisch en Vlaams Spouse(s) Wilfried Martens Residence Lokeren Committees President and Chair of AWEPA Website www.mietsmet.be Miet Smet (Sint-Niklaas, 5 April 1943) is a Belgian politician for the Christian Democratic and Flemish party (CD&V).
Miet Smet was the founder (1973) and first president (until 1982) of the Christian People's Party political women's organisation, Vrouw en Maatschappij (Woman and Society).[1]
She was elected to the Belgian Chamber of People's Representatives in 1978. In 1985 she became State Secretary of Environmental Affairs, and negotiated an Equal Opportunities portfolio. While Smet's competencies cover all aspects of social emancipation, she focused on violence against women, women's economic position and their participation in decision-making. When Miet Smet became Minister of Labour and Employment in 1991, she kept the Equal Opportunities portfolio.[2]
When she was offered first place in the CD&V list for the European elections in 1999 instead of Wilfried Martens, Martens, at the instigation of then-wife Ilse Schouteden, refused to run at all.[3][4]
Miet Smet was a Member of the European Parliament from 1999 to 2004.
She became a Minister of State in 2002, and has been a member of the Flemish Parliament since 2004, and a Belgian senator since 2007.[5]
On 27 September 2008, she married fellow CD&V politician and former Belgian Prime Minister Wilfried Martens.[6]
Ms. Smet currently serves as president of the Association of European Parliamentarians with Africa (AWEPA).[7] She was elected in 2009 and took over from former president Dr. Jan Nico Scholten.
References
- ^ Miet en Manschappij in Johan Anthierens, Het Belgische domdenken, p. 27
- ^ Kris Deschouwer and M. Theo Jans (eds.), Politics Beyond the State: Actors and Policies in Complex Institutional Settings, ASP/VUBPRESS, Brussels, 2008, ISBN 90-5487-436-8. p. 225
- ^ Martens refuses to run, Europe Magazine, 1 May 1999
- ^ Love tangle is final undoing of former Belgian PM, Stephen Bates, The Guardian, 7 March 1999
- ^ "Belgische Senaat" (in Dutch). Belgian Senate. http://www.senate.be/www/?MIval=/index_senate&MENUID=11200&LANG=nl. Retrieved 10 June 2009.
- ^ Oud-ministers Martens en Smet vandaag getrouwd, De Morgen, 27 September 2008
- ^ "AWEPA Executive Committee". http://awepa.org/index.php/en/about-us/organisational-structure/executive-committee.html.
Categories:- 1943 births
- Living people
- Christen-Democratisch en Vlaams politicians
- Flemish politicians
- Members of the Belgian Federal Parliament
- Belgian Ministers of State
- Order of Leopold recipients
- Grand Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
- Female MEPs for Belgium
- Christen-Democratisch en Vlaams MEPs
- MEPs for Belgium 1999–2004
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