Delors: Inside the house that Jacques built

Abstract

This biography is a study of Jacques Delors and his family background, his struggles and ideas, his setbacks and achievements against the turbulent background of the European movement and the growth of the EC. Since 1985, when Jacques Delors became President of the European Commission, no politician made a bigger impact on Western Europe. Delors's vigour and determination revived a moribund European Community. Delors masterminded the Single European Act and the programme to create a single market. He also fathered more recent goals such as monetary union and political union, which the Treaty of Maastricht, agreed in December 1991, enshrined. And he inspired that treaty's infamous social chapter. A brilliant political opportunist, Delors turned the Community - now the European Union - into a powerful and often intrusive entity. But while his sucesses encouraged countries outside the Community to seek membership, they also provoked a wave of anti-Brussels sentiment in the 1990s. Delors and Margaret Thatcher offer opposing prescriptions for Europe's future - one federalist, the other nationalist. Like Thatcher, with whom he has often clashed, Delors attracts liking and loathing, but seldom indifference. Delors is a complex bundle of contradictions. He is a passionate European who has never lost his Gallic perspective, a master of detail who is also a visionary ideologue, a fervent Roman Catholic who enjoys politics and power. Delors remains a figure to be reckoned with. His presidential term continues until January 1995, and opinion polls show him to be France's most popular politician of the left.

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