Jacques Delors facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Jacques Delors
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Delors in 1993
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| President of the European Commission | |
| In office 7 January 1985 – 24 January 1995 |
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| Vice President | Frans Andriessen |
| Preceded by | Gaston Thorn |
| Succeeded by | Jacques Santer |
| Minister of Finance | |
| In office 22 May 1981 – 17 July 1984 |
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| Prime Minister | Pierre Mauroy |
| Preceded by | René Monory |
| Succeeded by | Pierre Bérégovoy |
| Member of the European Parliament | |
| In office 1 July 1979 – 25 May 1981 |
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| Constituency | East France |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Jacques Lucien Jean Delors
20 July 1925 Paris, France |
| Died | 27 December 2023 (aged 98) Paris, France |
| Political party | Socialist Party |
| Spouse |
Marie Lephaille
(m. 1948; died 2020) |
| Children | Martine |
| Alma mater | University of Paris |
Jacques Lucien Jean Delors ( 20 July 1925 – 27 December 2023) was a French politician who served as the eighth president of the European Commission from 1985 to 1995. As President of the Commission, he played a key role in the creation of the single market and the euro. He was Minister of Finance of France from 1981 to 1984, and a Member of the European Parliament from 1979 to 1981.
As President of the European Commission, 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 so-called Delors Committee which 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 in 1992.
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French politics
Born in Paris in a family originating from Corrèze, Delors first held in the 1940s through the 1960s a series of posts in French banking and state planning with the Bank of France. As a member of the French Confederation of Christian Workers (CFTC), he participated in its secularization and the foundation of the French Democratic Confederation of Labour (CFDT). In 1969, he became social affairs adviser to the Gaullist Prime Minister Jacques Chaban-Delmas, 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 when he became a high government official to avoid conflicts of interests. In 1974 Delors joined the Socialist Party, 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 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, 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. Critically, he held the line on France's membership of the European Monetary System (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
Delors became the President of the European Commission 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. 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 for the Study of Economic and Monetary Union, widely known as the Delors 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 Maastricht Treaty.
In opposition to the strident neoliberalism of U.S. President Ronald Reagan (1981–1989) that 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 had 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 a UNESCO Commission on Education for the Twenty-first Century from 1993 to 1996, whose final report was published as Learning: the Treasure Within. 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) project.
In 1994, members of the Socialist Party attempted to persuade Delors to run for president. 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. 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 Notre Europe in 1996 and remained one of its presidents for the rest of his life. He was 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.
On 15 September 2010, Delors supported the new initiative Spinelli Group, which was founded to reinvigorate the striving for federalisation of the European Union. Other prominent supporters include Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Guy Verhofstadt, Sylvie Goulard, Andrew Duff, and Elmar Brok. In 2010, Delors was the first to be honoured with the Leonardo European Corporate Learning Award.
In 1990, Delors received the Freedom medal.
In 2012, Delors stated in the Handelsblatt 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 bestowed upon them, in recognition of "his remarkable contribution to the development of the European project".
Personal life and death
Delors was married to Marie Lephaille until her death in 2020. They had a daughter, Martine Aubry, who served as the First Secretary of the French Socialist Party from 2008 to 2012, and a son, Jean-Paul Delors, who was a journalist and died of leukaemia in 1982 at the age of 29.
Delors died in his sleep at his home in Paris, on 27 December 2023, at the age of 98.
Awards
- 1999: Member of the Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium.
- 2005: Pax Christi International Peace Award
- Honorary Citizen of Europe
Honours
Austria : Grand Decoration of Honour in Gold with Sash of the Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria
Estonia : First Class of the Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana
France : Commander of the Legion of Honour (2005; previously appointed Officer in 1999)
Germany : Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany- Germany : Medal of the Order of Merit of Baden-Württemberg
- Germany : Knight of the Bavarian Order of Merit
Hungary : Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary
Peru: Grand Cross of the Order of the Sun of Peru
Poland : Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland
Portugal : Grand Cross of the Order of Christ- Portugal : Grand Cross of the Order of Prince Henry
Spain : Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic
See also
In Spanish: Jacques Delors para niños
