Jacques Camille Paris (2 November 1902, Gaillac – 17 July 1953, Talence), was the first Secretary General of the Council of Europe from 11 August 1949 until his death.
Gaillac is a commune in the Tarn department in southern France. It had in 2013 a population of 14,334 inhabitants.
Talence is a commune in the Gironde department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France.
The Secretary General of the Council of Europe is appointed by the Parliamentary Assembly on the recommendation of the Committee of Ministers for a period of five years. He or she is entrusted with the responsibility of meeting the aim for which the Council of Europe was set up in London on 5 May 1949, namely to achieve greater unity between its Member States for the purpose of safeguarding and realising the ideals and principles which are their common heritage and facilitating their economic and social progress.
During the Second World War he was head of the Commissariat Général aux Affaires Etrangères for the French government in London and Algiers. He was appointed Executive Secretary of the French delegation which drew up the plans for the Council of Europe in 1948 and 1949. [1]
There is a street named after him in Bordeaux. [2]
The Rose Window of Strasbourg Cathedral, donated by the Council of Europe in 1956 and featuring the European flag above the image of the Virgin Mary, is also dedicated to him. [3]
Strasbourg Cathedral or the Cathedral of Our Lady of Strasbourg, also known as Strasbourg Minster, is a Catholic cathedral in Strasbourg, Alsace, France. Although considerable parts of it are still in Romanesque architecture, it is widely considered to be among the finest examples of high, or late, Gothic architecture. Erwin von Steinbach is credited for major contributions from 1277 to his death in 1318.
Jacques Paris married Reine Claudel, the daughter of Paul Claudel. When he died in a road accident in Talence in the summer of 1953, the Pope sent Paul Claudel a letter of condolence. [4] His daughter Reine Marie Paris was the biographer of Camille Claudel, her great aunt.
Paul Claudel was a French poet, dramatist and diplomat, and the younger brother of the sculptress Camille Claudel. He was most famous for his verse dramas, which often convey his devout Catholicism. Claudel was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in six different years.
Camille Claudel was a French sculptor. Although she died in relative obscurity, Claudel has gained recognition for the originality and quality of her work. She was the elder sister of the poet and diplomat Paul Claudel and the co-worker and lover of sculptor Auguste Rodin.
The choice of a French national as the first Secretary General for the Council of Europe, like the choice of Strasbourg as the seat of the organisation, was the result of a deal between the British and the French. In return, the French accepted the British blueprint of an organisation with limited powers, including a parliamentary assembly that was purely consultative. [5]
