The Hague Club
The Hague Club is formed by the Chief Executives of ca 30 major private Foundations in Europe and corresponding members from the USA, Asia and Australia. It meets once a year to discuss informally the role of philanthropy and management of Foundations. Founded in 1971, it claims to be independent of governments and to have no political aims. The real story is that it is a network of foundations directed first by the CIA, then indirectly by the National Endowment for Democracy, to implement an agenda where a multicultural society takes the place of secularism and equity.
Contents
History
Denis Boneau in his history of the Saint-Simon Foundation also told the history of the Hague Club[1]:
"In 1964, the Ford Foundation, playing the role of the CIA philanthropic hand, had organized a symposium in Berlin, which aimed at the creation of American-style foundations in Europe. Four international conferences later, the first European foundations were invited to a work seminar in 1969 under the auspices of the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations, in the Serbeloni de Bellagio village (Italy), at the end of which a permanent contact group was created: The Hague Club.
Since then, the Club organizes various meetings a year. The first meeting focuses on the search for funding and the following on the study of one or two propaganda themes to be later disseminated by each member foundation in their own country.
In 1982, the newborn Saint-Simon Foundation received The Hague Club in Paris. Two topics were dealt with: unemployment and the multicultural society.
The objects of next meetings were: the sense of work (Bunnik, 1983); favoring excellence at the University (London, 1983); emergence of amulticultural society in Europe (Brussels, 1984); excellence vs. egalitarianism in the multicultural societies (Jerusalem, 1986); implications of the world population growth (Athens, 1991); the civil society (Seville, 1992); financing higher education and research (London, 1993); and so forth. The matrix of the Saint-Simonian rhetoric can be sensed here where the multicultural society takes the place of secularism and equity substitutes equality just to mention some examples.
There are also two “external” personalities who participate in the debates: the President of the U.S. Council of Foundations and Manager of the National Endowment for Democracy James A. Joseph, and George Soros’s representative Yehuda Elkana.
Members
The Chief Executives of the following foundations (as at 2012)[2], plus some historical members (Saint-Simon Foundation):
- Finnish Cultural Foundation (Finland)
- Esmée Fairbairn Foundation (UK)
- Robert Bosch Stiftung (Germany)
- Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation (Sweden)
- Chen Yet-Sen Family Foundation (Hong Kong)
- Gebert Rüf Stiftung (Switzerland)
- Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds (Netherlands)
- Myer Foundation (Australia)
- Compagnia di San Paolo (Italy)
- Oranje Fonds (Holland)
- ZEIT-Stiftung (Germany)
- Bernard van Leer Foundation (Holland)
- Rockefeller Brothers Fund (USA)
- Jacobs Foundation (Switzerland)
- Bernard van Leer Foundation (Holland)
- VolkswagenStiftung (Germany)
- Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation (Finland)
- The Leverhulme Trust (UK)
- Fondazione Adriano Olivetti (Italy)
- New Europe College (Romania)
- Fundacion Instituto de Empresa (Spain)
- Fritz Thyssen Stiftung (Germany)
- Institusjonen Fritt Ord (Norway)
- Velux Foundation (Denmark)
- European Foundation Centre (Belgium)
- Fundación Princesa de Asturias (Spain)
- Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft (Germany)
- Foundation Roi Baudouin (Belgium)
- Nuffield Foundation (UK)
- Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (Portugal)
- Wellcome Trust(UK)
- Saint-Simon Foundation (closed in 1999)
- Egmont Foundation)
Known members
5 of the 31 of the members already have pages here:
| Member | Description |
|---|---|
| Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation | Philanthropic foundation with Bilderberg habit. |
| Compagnia di San Paolo | |
| Fritt Ord | Norwegian grant giving foundation with Cold War origins. |
| Saint-Simon Foundation | Think tank which for almost twenty years imposed Washington’s thinking in France. |
| Wellcome Trust | 4th wealthiest charitable foundation in the world |
