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Jacques Delors is known as the architect of the modern European Union. Photo/Reuters
PARIS – Jacques Delors, who has died aged 98, was the architect of the modern European Union. As president of the executive branch of the European Union (EU) – the European Commission – from 1985 to 1995, he was a key figure in “ever closer union” – including the implementation of the single market and the creation of the euro.
His ideas met with fierce opposition in Britain from Margaret Thatcher, John Major and the British press – who saw him as a modern-day Charlemagne, bent on European political unity.
And he lived long enough to see Britain decide on its European project, in the Brexit referendum in 2016.
8 Legacies of Jacques Delors, Architect of the European Union Who Shaped the Future of the West
1. Committed Socialist
Photo/Reuters
According to the BBC, Jacques Lucien Jean Delors was born near the Place de la Bastille in the center of Paris on July 20 1925.
His extended family’s political views ranged from strongly socialist to strongly communist. His father was a left-leaning socialist in the Banque de France. Having been seriously wounded during the First World War, he was also a committed pacifist.
Young Jacques’ education was continually disrupted by the Second World War, as the family continued to move around.
He took up a place at the University of Strasbourg shortly after the German invasion, but was soon detained by the occupying forces.
Fearing that the Nazis would send him abroad as a forced laborer, he decided to put his student career on hold.
2. Jacques Delors Was the Architect of the Modern European Union
According to the BBC, when the family returned to Paris in 1944, a reluctant Delors was persuaded to follow his father and join the Banque de France.
He passed the exam for the organization’s executive track, and his career in finance took off.