Jacques Delors is a French politician and economist. He has twice been the President of the European Commission, the executive governing body of the European Union, and played a major role in forming the single market economy that Europe has today.
Jacques Delors was born in Paris, France in the year 1925. His birthday is the twentieth of July. For three decades, from the forties through the sixties, Jacques Delors worked in the banking and state planning sectors. He helped to found the French Democratic Confederation of Labour, one of the top five trade union organizations in France, in 1964. In the late sixties, Jacques Delors was an advisor to the Prime Minister.
Moving to the French Socialist Party in 1974, Jacques Delors started running for office and from 1979 to 1981 he was a member of the European Parliament. Jacques Delors served as the Economics and Finance Minister during the 1981 Presidency of Francois Mitterrand. From 1983, Jacques Delors was the Economics, Finance and Budget Minister of France.
In 1985, Jacques Delors became President of the European Commission and worked primarily on instituting reforms that would later allow the European Community to create a single market in 1993. During the nineties, Jacques Delors worked on the UNESCO Commission on Education for the Twenty-First Century for several years.
Jacques Delors was temporarily considered as a candidate for President of France in 1995. He was encouraged to run by the French Socialist Party; however, Jacques Delors turned down the offer and the election ultimately went to Jacques Chirac, who continued to hold the post until 2007.
Since his decline from being actively involved in politics, Jacques Delors has been remembered primarily for his years as the head of the European Commission, during which time he became a household name throughout Europe and helped build the strength of the European Union through his public political actions.