France
Former EU Commission President Jacques Delors dies
Jacques Delors has died. photo
© Etienne Laurent/EPA/dpa
Jacques Delors headed the EU Commission for many years. He always campaigned resolutely for European unification. Now the Frenchman has died at an old age.
The former EU Commission President Jacques Delors is dead. This was reported by the French news agency AFP, citing Delors’ daughter Martine Aubry. Delors died at the age of 98.
French President Emmanuel Macron praised him as a “fighter for human justice” on the online platform X (formerly Twitter).
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During Delors’s term in Brussels from 1985 to 1995, the Maastricht Treaty turned the European Communities into the European Union. The “Delors Report” pointed the way to economic and monetary union. Delors was honored as an “Honorary Citizen of Europe” in 2015 for his “remarkable contribution to the development of the European project”. Other “Honorary Citizens of Europe” include former Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Jean Monnet, one of the founding fathers of European unification.
Before moving to Brussels, Delors was economics and finance minister in his home country under the socialist President François Mitterrand, who took power in 1981.
Macron wrote: “His commitment, his ideals and his integrity will always inspire us. I pay tribute to his work and his memory and share the pain of his loved ones.”
The President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, wrote on X that with the death of Jacques Delors, the EU is losing a giant. As an honorary citizen of Europe, he worked tirelessly for a united Europe as President of the European Commission and Member of the European Parliament. “Generations of Europeans will continue to benefit from his legacy,” said the EU leader.
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