Late EPP President Martens Buried with State Honors

Late EPP President and ex Belgium PM, Wilfried Martens is considered to have been one of the most devoted politicians to the idea of a unified Europe. Photo BGNES

The late President of the European People's Party (EPP) Wilfried Martens is being buried Saturday in the Belgian city of Ghent with state honors.

Martens died at the age of 77 on October 9.

He was Prime Minister of Belgium from 1979 to 1992 (briefly interrupted in 1981), and co-founder the centre-right European Peoples' Party (EPP) in 1976 and has served as its president since 1990.

Martens was hospitalized at the end of August for blood coagulation problems and released on September 9.

The ceremony is attended by Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev and the leader of the Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party, GERB, and former Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov.

Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council, Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, Angela Merkel, Federal Chancellor of Germany, Jean-Claude Juncker, Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Viktor Orb?n, Prime Minister of Hungary, Valdis Dombrovskis, Prime Minister of Latvia, Traian Basescu, President of Romania, Mikheil Saakashvili, President of Georgia, Serzh Sargsyan, President of Armenia, Iurie Leanca, Prime Minister of Moldova, are among the guests.

The funeral will be also attended by Elio di Rupo, Prime Minister of Belgium, Kris Peeters, Minister-President of Flanders, Rudy Vervoort, Minister-President of the Brussels-Capital region, Karl-Heinz Lambertz, Minister-President of the German-speaking Community of Belgium

Merkel and Barroso are speaking at the beginning of a religious ceremony in the Cathedral of Ghent.

Martens is considered to have been one of the most devoted politicians to the idea of unified Europe.

Lawyer by training, he was able to manage 9 coalition governments in Belgium for 12 years; governments dominated by both left and right-wing parties.

Later, the East Flemish Christian democrat politician went on to become president of the European People's Party, the Christian democrat group in the European Parliament.

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