Vice-President Edoardo Battaglia (R) and Secretary General Frits de Nerée tot Babberich (L) during a European Parliamentary Assembly session in Strasbourg, March 31 1960 © European Communities 1960 – European Parliament
Biography
Born on 8 January 1915 in Roermond, Netherlands, Frits de Nerée tot Babberich studied Civil and Public law and Political Economics at the University of Leiden from 1933 to 1938.
He worked as an official at the Court of Auditors of the Netherlands from 1938 and subsequently at the Ministry of Economic Affairs (Directorate for External Trade) in the Hague. He was elected first Deputy Secretary-General of the Second Chamber of States General of the Netherlands in 1945.
He was a political prisoner during the Second World War from 1942 to 1944 and a reserve major (special framework) from 1944 to 1945.
At the inaugural session of the Common Assembly of the ECSC, he was appointed Secretary-General and became Secretary-General of the Ad Hoc Assembly responsible for drawing up a draft Treaty establishing a European Political Community. In 1958 he became Secretary-General of the European Parliament.
The constitutive session of the new European Parliamentary Assembly on the 19th of March 1958. Frits de Nerée tot Babberich (L), Robert Schuman (R) © European Union – European Parliament
De Nerée tot Babberich has published articles in various legal periodicals in the Netherlands and beyond. From 1954, he was a lecturer at the University of Saarbrücken.
Frits de Nerée tot Babberich passed away on the 7 June 1996.
Administrative positions held
1938-1939: Official of the the Court of Auditors
1939-1942: Directorate of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Economic Affairs
1945-1945: Deputy Secretary-General of the House of Representatives of the States General of the Netherlands
1945-1946: Drafting secretary of the Committee responsible for studying Dutch public opinion on the role of overseas territories throughout the Kingdom of the Netherlands
1946-1947: Parliamentary secretary of a delegation responsible for a mission to the territories of the Kingdom of the West, Central America, in order to study the constitutional reforms to be carried out in those territories
1949-1952: Rapporteur-general, Deputy to the members of the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe appointed by the Dutch Parliament
1951-1958: Secretary-General of the European Coal and Steel Community
1952: Appointed Rapporteur-general, Deputy to the members of the Joint Assembly of the ECSC by the Dutch Parliament
1952: Appointed Secretary-General at the inaugural session of the ECSC
1952: Appointed Secretary General of the Ad hoc Assembly
1953-1957: Secretary-General of the Commission establishing the European Economic Community
1958-1960: Secretary-General of the European Parliament
1963-1975: Member of the Provincial Council of Gelderland
What's in the Archives
This fond contains 24 files organised into:
- General organisation and management of administrative bodies
- Management of staff
- Budget and finances
- Building and security resources
- Organisation of legislative work
- Cultural activities and external relations
- Private archives of Frits de Nerée tot Babberich
