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BRUSSELS — Jacques Delors, who headed the European Commission between 1985 and 1995 and is seen as one of the most important architects of a European internal market and single currency, died on Wednesday, aged 98.
His death was confirmed by his daughter, Martine Aubry. “He died this morning at his home in Paris in his sleep,” said Aubry, the socialist mayor of the French city of Lille, according to French media.
Before becoming European Commission president, Delors was a French finance minister and European Parliament lawmaker.
EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell said: “Jacques Delors is dead. Europe has just lost one of its giants. He will have shaped the destiny of the EU through the power of his convictions and the rigor of his action. He thus enters the Pantheon of the greats that Europe has produced and whose legacy we must assume.”
European Council President Charles Michel added: “Jacques Delors led the transformation of the European Economic Community towards a true Union, based on humanist values and supported by a single market and a single currency, the euro. He was a passionate and concrete defender of it until his last days. A great Frenchman and great European, he went down in history as one of the builders of our Europe. Today I offer my sincere condolences to his family.”
