Jacques Delors

Jacques Lucien Jean Delors (born July 20, 1925) French economist and politician and European statesman, president (1985–95) of the European Commission. Beginning in the 1940s, he held a series of posts in French banking and state planning, eventually becoming (1969) an adviser to Gaullist Prime Minister Jacques Chaban-Delmas. In 1974 he joined the French Socialist party, and from 1979 to 1981 he served in the European Parliament. Under President François Mitterrand, Delors served as economics and finance minister (1981–83) and economics, finance, and budget minister (1983–84), helping to revive the French economy. In 1985 he became president of the European Commission, the executive body of the European Community (EC; now the European Union [EU]). With British commissioner Lord Cockfield, he crafted and won approval of the Single European Act (1986), which laid the groundwork for the creation of a single EC market in 1993. Delors also oversaw the transformation of the EC into the EU, which moved the EC nations toward a single currency and greater cooperation on defense.