About Jacques Delors
Jacques Lucien Jean Delors (French: [ʒak lysjɛ̃ ʒɑ̃ dəlɔʁ]; 20 July 1925 – 27 December 2023) was a French politician who served as president of the European Commission from 1985 to 1995. Delors played a key role in the creation of the European single market, the euro and the evolution of the (then) European Economic Community (EEC) towards the modern European Union (EU). As president of the European Commission (EC), Delors was the most visible and influential leader in European affairs. He proposed policies that closely linked the member nations together and promoted greater union. Executing the decisions of the European Council, he established a single market that made possible the free movement of goods, capital, services, and workers (known collectively as the "four freedoms of the European Union"). He also headed the Delors Committee, which proposed the monetary union to create the euro, a new single currency to replace individual national currencies. This was achieved when member states ratified the Maastricht Treaty in 1992. Delors was a member of the French Socialist Party. Before becoming president of the EC, he was France's finance minister from 1981 to 1984, and a member of the European Parliament from 1979 to 1981. 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. Delors became the President of the European Commission in January 1985.
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