Jacques Lucien Jean Delors (born 20 July 1925) is a French politician who served as the 8th

President of the European Commission The president of the European Commission is the head of the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union (EU). The President of the Commission leads a Cabinet of Commissioners, referred to as the College, collectively account ...

from 1985 to 1995. He served as

Minister of Finance A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...

of France from 1981 to 1984. He was a

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

from 1979 to 1981. As President, Delors was the most visible and influential leader in European affairs. He implemented the policies that closely linked the member nations together and promoted the need for unity. He created a single market that made the free movement of persons, capital, goods, and services within the European Economic Community (EEC) possible. He also headed the committee that proposed the monetary union to create the Euro, a new single currency to replace individual national currencies. This was achieved by the signing of the

Maastricht Treaty The Treaty on European Union, commonly known as the Maastricht Treaty, is the foundation treaty of the European Union (EU). Concluded in 1992 between the then-twelve member states of the European Communities, it announced "a new stage in the ...

in 1992.

French politics

Born in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

in a family originating from

Corrèze Corrèze (; oc, Corresa) is a department in France, named after the river Corrèze which runs through it. Although its prefecture is Tulle, its most populated city is Brive-la-Gaillarde. Corrèze is located in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, ...

, Delors first held in the 1940s through the 1960s a series of posts in French banking and state planning with the

Banque de France The Bank of France ( French: ''Banque de France''), headquartered in Paris, is the central bank of France. Founded in 1800, it began as a private institution for managing state debts and issuing notes. It is responsible for the accounts of the F ...

. As a member of the

French Confederation of Christian Workers The French Confederation of Christian Workers (french: italic=no, Confédération française des travailleurs chrétiens; CFTC) is one of the five major French confederation of trade unions, belonging to the social Christian tradition. It was ...

, he participated in its secularization and the foundation of the French Democratic Confederation of Labour. In 1969, he became social affairs adviser to the Gaullist Prime Minister

Jacques Chaban-Delmas Jacques Chaban-Delmas (; 7 March 1915 – 10 November 2000) was a French Gaullist politician. He served as Prime Minister under Georges Pompidou from 1969 to 1972. He was the Mayor of Bordeaux from 1947 to 1995 and a deputy for the Gironde ''d� ...

, a move which was presented as part of Chaban's outreach to the centre-ground and first attracted media attention to Delors personally. In 1957, Delors left the

CFDT The French Democratic Confederation of Labour (french: link=no, Confédération française démocratique du travail, CFDT) is a national trade union center, one of the five major French confederations of trade unions, led since 2012 by Laurent Be ...

when he became a high government official to avoid conflicts of interests. In 1974 Delors joined the

French Socialist Party The Socialist Party (french: Parti socialiste , PS) is a French centre-left and social-democratic political party. It holds pro-European views. The PS was for decades the largest party of the "French Left" and used to be one of the two major p ...

, with other left-wing Christians. He was one of the rare members of the party to be openly religious, thus challenging its long-standing secular tradition of Laïcité. He served in the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

from 1979 to 1981, becoming chairman of its Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, actively taking part in debates about economic, social and monetary policies. Under President

François Mitterrand François Marie Adrien Maurice Mitterrand (26 October 19168 January 1996) was President of France, serving under that position from 1981 to 1995, the longest time in office in the history of France. As First Secretary of the Socialist Party, he ...

, Delors served as Economics and Finance Minister from 1981 to 1983, and Economics, Finance, and Budget Minister from 1983 to 1984. He advocated a pause in the social policies, a clear acceptance of the market economy, and an alignment with European

social democracy Social democracy is a Political philosophy, political, Social philosophy, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocati ...

. Critically, he held the line on France's membership of the

European Monetary System The European Monetary System (EMS) was a multilateral adjustable exchange rate agreement in which most of the nations of the European Economic Community (EEC) linked their currencies to prevent large fluctuations in relative value. It was initiate ...

(EMS), giving priority to monetary stability over left-wing spending priorities. Mitterrand flirted with the idea of naming him Prime Minister, but never made the appointment.

President of the European Commission

1991, persconferentie Eurotop, MECC Maastricht

Delors became the

in January 1985. During his presidency, he oversaw important budgetary reforms and laid the groundwork for the introduction of a single market within the

European Community The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organization created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisbo ...

. It came into effect on 1 January 1993 and allowed the free movement of persons, capital, goods, and services within the Community. Delors also headed the committee that in early 1989 proposed the monetary union to create a new currency—the Euro—to replace individual national currencies. This was done in the 1992

. In opposition to the strident

neoliberalism Neoliberalism (also neo-liberalism) is a term used to signify the late 20th century political reappearance of 19th-century ideas associated with free-market capitalism after it fell into decline following the Second World War. A prominent fa ...

of American President Ronald Reagan (1981-1989) which dominated the American political agenda, Delors promoted an alternative interpretation of capitalism that embedded it in the European social structure. He synthesized three themes. From the left came favouring the redistribution of wealth, and the protection of the weakest. Second a neo-mercantilist approach wanted to maximize European industrial output. A third was reliance on the marketplace. His emphasis on the social dimension of Europe was and remains central to a strong narrative that became a key element of the self identification of the European Union. The Delors presidency has been considered as the apex of the European Commission's influence on European integration.

Post-Presidency

Delors has a longstanding interest in education. Initiator of a French law in 1971 (la formation professionnelle continue – FPC) requiring firms to set aside part of their profits for educational opportunities for their employees, he also chaired
UNESCO Commission on Education for the Twenty-first Century
from 1993 to 1996 whose final report was published a

This work continues to have a significant influence on discourse on lifelong learning, forming the conceptual foundation for both the Canadian Composite Learning Index as well as the

European Lifelong Learning Indicators (ELLI) The development of the European Lifelong Learning Indicators (ELLI) is an initiative of the non-profit Bertelsmann Stiftung to monitor the state of lifelong learning in Europe. The main focus of the ELLI project is the ELLI Index. The ELLI index ...

project. In 1994, members of the

attempted to persuade Delors to run for President of France. Polls showed that he would have a very good chance of defeating either of the main conservative contenders – Prime Minister Édouard Balladur and Mayor of Paris

Jacques Chirac Jacques René Chirac (, , ; 29 November 193226 September 2019) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. Chirac was previously Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988, as well as Ma ...

. However Delors declined to run and the eventual Socialist nominee, Lionel Jospin, was defeated in the 1995 presidential election by Jacques Chirac. In 1995, Delors won the Charles V Prize, awarded by the Fundación Academia Europea de Yuste Delors founded the Paris-based, centre-left

think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...

Notre Europe The Jacques Delors Institute (french: Institut Jacques Delors), which also uses the name ''Notre Europe'' (French for "Our Europe"), is an independent think tank based in Paris. Founded in 1996 by Jacques Delors, it aims to "think a united Europ ...

in 1996 and remains one of its presidents. He is president of the ''Conseil de l'emploi, des revenus et de la cohésion sociale'', and honorary member of both the '' Institut Aspen France'' and the

Club of Rome The Club of Rome is a nonprofit, informal organization of intellectuals and business leaders whose goal is a critical discussion of pressing global issues. The Club of Rome was founded in 1968 at Accademia dei Lincei in Rome, Italy. It consists ...

. On 15 September 2010 Delors supported the new initiative

Spinelli Group The Spinelli Group is an initiative founded with a view to reinvigorate the endeavour for federalisation of the European Union (EU), by creating a network of citizens, think tanks, NGOs, academics, writers and politicians who support the idea o ...

, which was founded to reinvigorate the strive for federalisation of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

. Other prominent supporters include

Daniel Cohn-Bendit Daniel Marc Cohn-Bendit (; ; born 4 April 1945) is a French-German politician of Jewish descent. He was a student leader during the unrest of May 1968 in France and was also known during that time as ''Dany le Rouge'' (French for "Danny the Red" ...

Guy Verhofstadt Guy Maurice Marie Louise Verhofstadt (; ; born 11 April 1953) is a Belgian politician who was the leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe from 2009 to 2019, and has been a member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Belgium ...

Sylvie Goulard Sylvie Goulard (born 6 December 1964) is a French politician and civil servant who served as Deputy Governor of the Banque de France from 2018 to 2022. Prior to this, Goulard briefly served as Minister of the Armed Forces from 17 May to 21 June ...

, Andrew Duff, and

Elmar Brok Elmar Peter Brok (born 14 May 1946) is a German politician who served as Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 1980 until 2019, who is best known for his role as chairman of the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs. He is a mem ...

. In 2010, Delors was the first to be honored with the

Leonardo European Corporate Learning Award Leonardo is a masculine given name, the Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese equivalent of the English language, English, German language, German, and Dutch language, Dutch name, Leonard. People Notable people with the name include: * Leonardo da ...

. In 1990, Delors received the Freedom medal. In 2012, Delors stated in the ''

Handelsblatt The ''Handelsblatt'' (literally "commerce paper" in English) is a German-language business newspaper published in Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Du ...

'' newspaper that "If the British cannot support the trend towards more integration in Europe, we can nevertheless remain friends, but on a different basis. I could imagine a form such as a European economic area or a free-trade agreement." On 25 June 2015, Donald Tusk announced that Delors would become the third person ever to have the title of

Honorary Citizen of Europe Honorary Citizen of Europe is an honour bestowed by the European Council of the European Union, for extraordinary work to promote European cooperation. It has only been bestowed on three people: * Jean Monnet (2 April 1976, during the meeti ...

bestowed upon them, in recognition of "his remarkable contribution to the development of the European project".

Personal life

Delors was married to Marie Lephaille until her death in 2020. They had a daughter,

Martine Aubry Martine Louise Marie Aubry (; née Delors; born 8 August 1950) is a French politician. She was the First Secretary of the French Socialist Party (''Parti Socialiste'', or PS) from November 2008 to April 2012, and has been the Mayor of Lille (No ...

, who served as the

First Secretary of the French Socialist Party The First Secretary of the Socialist Party ( French: ''Premier secrétaire du Parti socialiste'') is the most senior politician within the Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of ...

from 2008 to 2012, and a son, Jean-Paul Delors, who was a journalist and died of leukemia in 1982 at the age of 29.

Awards

* 1999: Member of the Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium.Index biographique des membres et associés de l'Académie royale de Belgique (1769-2005). p83 * 2005:

Pax Christi International Peace Award The Pax Christi International Peace Award is given out every year since 1988 by the Christian peace organisation Pax Christi to other peace organisations and peace activists. The focus lies on grassroots activists and organisations that are active ...

* Honorary Citizen of Europe

Honours

* : Grand Decoration of Honour in Gold with Sash of the

Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria The Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria (german: Ehrenzeichen für Verdienste um die Republik Österreich) is a state decoration of the Republic of Austria. It is divided into 15 classes and is the highest award in the A ...

* : First Class of the

Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana The Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana ( et, Maarjamaa Risti teenetemärk, sometimes translated as the Order of the Cross of St. Mary's Land) was instituted by the President of Estonia, Lennart Meri, on 16 May 1995 to honour the independence of ...

* : Commander of the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon, ...

* : Grand Cross of the

Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: Verdienstorden der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, or , BVO) is the only federal decoration of Germany. It is awarded for special achievements in political, economic, cultural, intellect ...

* : Medal of the

Order of Merit of Baden-Württemberg Order of Merit of Baden-Württemberg (german: link=no, Verdienstorden des Landes Baden-Württemberg) is the highest award of the German State of Baden-Württemberg. Established 26 November 1974, it was originally called the Medal of Merit of Bad ...

* : Knight of the Bavarian Order of Merit * : Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary *: Grand Cross of the

Order of the Sun of Peru Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of d ...

* : Knight Grand Cross of the

Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland The Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland ( pl, Order Zasługi Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej) is a Polish order of merit created in 1974, awarded to persons who have rendered great service to Poland. It is granted to foreigners or Poles resident ab ...

* : Grand Cross of the Order of Christ * : Grand Cross of the

Order of Prince Henry The Order of Prince Henry ( pt, Ordem do Infante Dom Henrique) is a Portuguese order of knighthood created on 2 June 1960, to commemorate the quincentenary of the death of the Portuguese prince Henry the Navigator, one of the main initiators of ...

* : Knight Grand Cross of the

Order of Isabella the Catholic The Order of Isabella the Catholic ( es, Orden de Isabel la Católica) is a Spanish civil order and honor granted to persons and institutions in recognition of extraordinary services to the homeland or the promotion of international relations a ...

Selected works

References

External links

Delors addressing the British trade unions
* The famous headline from '' The Sun'' in the UK
"Up Yours Delors"
* , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Delors, Jacques 1925 births French Christian socialists French Confederation of Christian Workers members French Democratic Confederation of Labour members French economists French European Commissioners French Roman Catholics Living people MEPs for France 1979–1984 Politicians from Paris Presidents of the European Commission Recipients of the Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana, 1st Class Socialist Party (France) politicians Unified Socialist Party (France) politicians French Ministers of Finance Catholic socialists Grand Crosses 1st class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Recipients of the Order of Merit of Baden-Württemberg Members of the Royal Academy of Belgium Recipients of the Four Freedoms Award European Commissioners 1985–1988