Former President of the European Parliament and former MEP Lord Henry Plumb of Coleshill passed away on 15th April 2022, at 97 years of age. Lord Henry Plumb served as a British Member of the European Parliament from 1979 to 1999.
Portrait of Lord Henry Plumb, EP President in his office at the EP in Strasbourg © European Community 1987
In this time, he was Chair and Member of the European Democratic Group; Vice-Chair, Member of the Bureau and a Member of the Group of the European People's Party (Christian-Democratic Group). During his legislative terms, he held the position of Chair of the Committee on Agriculture in addition to being a member of numerous parliamentary committees and delegations- for the comprehensive overview of his parliamentary activity, click here.
The Archives of Lord Henry Plumb's office
In 1987, Lord Henry Plumb became President of the European Parliament and President of the Parliament’s Bureau, positions he would hold until 1989. The Archives of the European Parliament have preserved over 1,800 files with more than 14,900 items from this time. These documents extensively detail his Office’s activities within Parliament and relations with internal and external bodies. For a more comprehensive description of the archival fonds of his Office, click here
What are some of the topics dealt with in Lord Henry Plumb's fonds?
The Single European Act or the new powers of the European Parliament
The archives of Lord Plumb's office offer us a wide range of more than 160 items, such as working documents, notes, minutes or other, relating to the Single Act, organised under the angle of comitology, parliamentary work or the inter-institutional working group. The richest file is devoted to the implementation of the Single Act in the European Parliament during Lord Plumb's entire term of office.
International relations: the world on the brink of upheaval
During his tenure, President Lord Plumb also defended and reaffirmed democratic values in countries struggling with democracy at that time. For example, in the spring of 1988, the President of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, proposed a series of constitutional reforms. It was against this background that in September 1988 the President of the European Parliament was invited by the Supreme Soviet to pay an official visit "at the most opportune moment in the history of political relations between the Soviet Union and the European Community".
Visit of a delegation of the EP, headed by Lord Plumb, President of the EP to Moscow. Meeting with Soviet MPs, left is August Voss. © European Union 2019 – European Parliament
Commitment to the defence of human rights
President Plumb personally and actively supported many actions in defence of human rights. One such instance was on 18 February 1987 when he received the "Mothers of Algiers". This group was made up of women who had been granted custody of their children by the French courts, but whose ex-husbands had abducted the children and kept them on Algerian territory. As a result of this event, the post of European Parliament Ombudsman on International Parental Child Abduction was created on 20 March 1987 on the initiative of Lord Plumb. Its aim is to help children from binational marriages who, following a divorce, have been abducted by one or other parent. Lord Plumb commemorated the day with emotion, giving a speech one year after the event taking stock of the progress made in this field.