Posted on 29 September 2017
The archives of the cabinets of the Presidents of the European Parliament Simone Veil and Piet Dankert are now available for consultation at the Historical Archives of the European Union in Florence.
The archival sub-fonds of both Piet Dankert and Simone Veil, available at the HAEU, comprise essentially documents produced during their respective mandate as President of the European Parliament. In the case of Mrs Veil, the sub-fonds also includes numerous documents coming from the cabinets of her predecessors. A number of documents from the cabinet of Simone Veil have however not been declassified and are not communicable.
The files of the Presidency Piet Dankert are still pending declassification and will be available only upon specific request.
Simone Veil, who joined the French Ministry of Justice in 1956, became Minister of Public Health in 1974. First to be elected by universal suffrage, she was President of the European Parliament from 1979 to 1982. In 1981, she received the Charlemagne Prize, awarded annually since 1950 by the city of Aachen for contributing to European unity.
Piet Dankert, member of the Dutch Labour Party, obtained a seat in 1968 in the Dutch House of Representatives. Member of the European Parliament (EP) since the late 1970s, he was elected President of the European Parliament from 1982 to 1984.
Access to the documents
Oral history of the European Parliament Presidents