Jacques Delors, a pragmatic visionary

Without any doubt, Jacques Delors made a profound impact on the strengthening of the European Union during his three mandates as President of the European Commission, from 1985 to 1994. Relations between the EU and the ACP were also reconfigured during his presidency through the revision of the Lomé Convention in 1995, giving a greater political dimension to the partnership.  

Compromise and willpower
 
When Jacques Delors became head of the European Commission in 1985, the post was one for a very high-level international official, but when he left it, the President of the Commission was considered the equivalent of a head of state. It could be said that he received a chair and transformed it into a throne. His great assets were an ability to listen to others and negotiate agreements but without sacrificing his own course of action. In his role as the French minister for the Economy and Finance before his appointment at the Commission, he forged the difficult compromise of the ‘British rebate’, a reduction of the UK contribution to European Community finances.  

From the outset of his tenure as head of the Commission on 6 January 1985, his qualities were all displayed in finding an agreement on the budget of the then European Economic Community (EEC). In reaching an agreement, he visited in turn all of the heads of state in the Community to discuss this matter and other projects. Showing both great determination and a spirit of compromise, he finally managed to get the members of the Council to agree to his proposals. In the process, the Council endorsed the ‘Delors Report’ on the creation by 1992 of the internal market of the free circulation of goods, services, capital and people. The Single European Act, adopted in 1986, that pulled together the different treaties governing the community and revised the role of community institutions, included arrangements for the establishment of the internal market. The final goal was attained with the adoption in 1992 of the Treaty on European Union, better known as the "Maastricht Treaty", and the coming into force in 1995 of the Schengen Convention on the free circulation of persons between the signatory countries.  

A personal anecdote…  At the end of the 1990s, following a press briefing by President Delors on the concept of free circulation of persons, I asked him whether the same freedom would be guaranteed to legal immigrants in countries of the Union. He responded: "Sir, I make a commitment before you and all your journalist colleagues that I shall fight to the bitter end for that to be the case." A year later, I interviewed him on another issue, and without any prompting he remarked: "Sir, I have not forgotten the commitment that I made on the free circulation of legalised immigrants". His word was his deed.

Consistency and his balanced outlook on the human being, society and politics, define him. These characteristics are reflected in both his actions and published writings. At the launch his book, 'Memoirs', he commented on his refusal to be a candidate in the French Presidential elections of 2005, despite being the most popular prospective candidate in the opinion polls. "The disappointments of tomorrow would be worse than the regrets of today", he said. Today Jacques Delors is still one of the most influential voices on the future of Europe, and with very good reason. 

Hegel Goutier