Herman Van Rompuy Rompuy was Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Budget from September 1993 to July 1999 in the two governments led by Jean-Luc Dehaene. As budget minister, together with finance minister Philippe Maystadt, he helped drive down Belgium's debt from a peak of 135% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 1993. It fell to below 100% of GDP in 2003. He was elected to the Belgian Chamber of Representatives in the 1995 general election, but as he remained a minister, he was barred from taking the seat while holding that office. After his party's defeat in the 1999 Belgian general election,
Aftermath of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami organizations had offered assistance to Japan. The EU has also been more than ready to offer its support to them: "An earthquake powerful enough to make the world wobble on its axis, a massive tsunami, an emergency in nuclear power stations. Any one of these would be a tragedy. Thousands of people have died and this has turned this tragedy into a catastrophe," said Herman van Rompuy, President of the European Council. Twenty Member States have offered assistance through the European Civil Protection Mechanism. Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard was the first foreign leader to visit the earthquake site The