Jacques Delors, a Paris bank messenger's son who became the visionary and builder of a more unified Europe in his momentous decade as chief executive of the European Union, has died in Paris, the Delors Institute think tank told the AP on Wednesday. He was 98. "The whole of Europe mourns the death of one of its greatest architects," the institute said in a statement. "The best results of European integration cannot be dissociated from the vision, the courage, the conviction, the perseverance and the relentless work which characterized Jacques Delors' work during his 10 years at the head of the European Commission."
Paying tribute, the office of French President Emmanuel Macron said: "This grandson of farmers and the son of a bank employee, whose rise was entirely due to his talent, never allowed the lofty heights to corrupt his human righteousness." Delors "became the builder of the EU as we know it today," German Chancellor Olaf Scholz wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "It is our responsibility to continue his work today for the good of Europe." For many, the owlish but hard-driving Socialist and Catholic was simply "Mr. Europe." The EU, which stretches these days from Finland to Portugal and is home to more than 500 million people, was dubbed "the house that Jacques built" by a popular biography.
Under his 1985-95 tenure at the head of the EU's bureaucracy in Brussels, member countries agreed to tear down barriers that prevented the free movement of capital, goods, services, and people. Delors was key in drawing up the blueprint for economic and monetary union, which led to the creation of the European Central Bank and the euro currency. The latter, considered by many to be Delors' masterpiece, is now official tender for 20 of the 27 EU nations. But in the years leading up to his death, some of Delors' work came under threat, per the AP. Among the challenges was the UK's vote in 2016 to drop out of the EU. As he left office in 1995, Delors insisted that European countries, which spent centuries at one another's throats in devastating wars, continue to strive for "agreements at political, social and economic levels."
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For many, the moody Frenchman was the most influential figure in constructing a more united Europe since the postwar founders of the Common Market decided to bind their nations together to prevent another war. The EU—called the European Community when Delors took the helm—grew from 10 nations to 12 during his tenure, with a clear promise of the greater expansion that has since taken place. For many, especially in Britain, Delors became the reviled personification of the overreaching Eurocrat meddling in virtually all aspects of people's lives. In his personal life, Delors liked jazz, Hollywood movies, and basketball but thought American society ruthless. "It's like a Western, with good guys and bad guys, where the weak don't have a place," he said. The European model, kinder and more social-minded, "remains superior," he said.
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