Jacques Delors, architect of modern EU, dies aged 98
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Jacques Delors, the former French president of the European Commission, died on Wednesday aged 98.
“He died this morning at his home in Paris in his sleep,” said Martine Aubry, his daughter who is also the socialist mayor of the city of Lille.
The French socialist politician was credited with the creation of the European Union’s modern single market and the euro single currency during his tenure at the helm of Brussels between 1985 and 1995.
His infamous battles with Margaret Thatcher, the former prime minister, over the transfer of powers to Brussels in the 1980s helped define Britain’s euroscepticism.
In Britain, he is probably best known for The Sun newspaper’s celebrated “Up Yours, Delors” headline, in the run-up to the Maastricht Treaty taking effect in 1993.
Mr Delors was often described as the “high priest of ever closer union”, making him a much-loved political figure inside the bloc.
Michel Barnier, the EU’s former Brexit negotiator, wrote on social media: “Jacques Delors was for many of us, well beyond political divisions, a source of inspiration and a reason to believe in a ‘certain idea’ of politics, of France and of Europe.”
‘Craftsman of our Europe’
Emmanuel Macron, the French president, praised Mr Delors as an “inexhaustible craftsman of our Europe”.
“His commitment, his ideals and his righteousness will always inspire us. I salute his work and his memory and share the pain of his loved ones,” Mr Macron added.
Charles Michel, the European Council president, said: “Jacques Delors led the transformation of the European Economic Community towards a true union, based on humanist values and supported by a single market and a single currency, the euro.
“He was a passionate and concrete defender of it until his last days. A great Frenchman and great European, he went down in history as one of the builders of our Europe.”
Boris Johnson, the former prime minister, said: “Jacques Delors was the pre-eminent architect of the modern European Union – and whether you agreed or not with his vision he was a towering political figure.
“Without Delors there would have been no Maastricht treaty and no Euro. Indeed without Delors there would have been no single market. He harnessed post Cold War anxieties about Germany to create a new federal structure for Europe - and he did it with dazzling panache.
“His ideas were never right for Britain – as he himself later seemed to concede – and there are many on the continent who have doubts about the direction of the EU. But no one can doubt his legacy today. Whatever you say about the modern EU – it is the house that Jacques built.”
Mr Delors had a high-profile political career in France, serving as finance minister under president Francois Mitterrand from 1981 to 1984.
But in 1995, despite being overwhelmingly ahead in the polls, he declined to run for the French presidency at the end of his tenure in Brussels.
He took the reins of power at the Commission in 1985, spending a decade at the helm of overseeing the bloc’s most integrationist steps.
These included the creation of the common market, the Schengen free-travel zone, the Erasmus university exchange programme and the euro.
Brexit fallout
Mr Delors later founded think tanks with the aim of furthering European federalism and, in recent years, warned of the dangers of populism in Europe, also calling for “audacity” in dealing with the Brexit fallout.
Enrico Letta, the president of the Jacques Delors Institute, said on Wednesday: “Modern Europe is today losing its founding father.”
Mr Delors was born near the Place de la Bastille in the centre of Paris on Jul 20 1925. His family’s political views ranged from ardently socialist to communism.
His father was a Left-leaning socialist usher at the Banque de France, but also a pacifist after being badly injured during the First World War.
A young Mr Delors had his education interrupted by the Second World War, with his family repeatedly moving.
He started at the University of Strasbourg shortly after the German invasion and was captured by occupational forces. Fearing the Nazis would send him abroad, he delayed his studies.
Returning to Paris in 1944, he joined the Banque de France, later becoming involved in the Catholic trade union movement, eventually becoming involved in politics.
He joined the Socialist party in 1971, but the Left-wing François Mitterrand and the conservative Valéry Giscard d’ Estaing asked him to join them three years later.
Mr Delors was said to enjoy being regarded as Right-wing by the Socialists and Left-wing by the Gaullists.
Ursula Von der Leyen, the current president of the European Commission, said: “We are all heirs to the life work of Jacques Delors: a dynamic and prosperous European Union.
“Jacques Delors forged his vision of a united Europe and his commitment to peace during the dark hours of the Second World War.”
