Insight
Ten reflections on Jacques Delors by Charles Grant, 4 January 2024 Jacques Delors’ impact on history, especially during the ten years that he headed the European Commission, was immense. He was the father of the European single market, while the euro would not have been created, in the way it was, when it was, without him. It was Delors’ role in history that made me keen to write his biography (‘Delors: Inside the House that Jacques Built’ appeared in 1994). While researching the book I spent long periods with him. That was no chore, because he was likeable, sometimes funny and had a broad hinterland extending to basketball, cycling, jazz and cinema. Here are ten reflections on a remarkable man. 1. The Commission president has few formal powers, but Delors still made an impact, partly because he was a consummate political tactician. He was able to persuade the national leaders who had real power to back his projects. He was fortunate that his time in charge coincided with a competent and experienced bunch of leaders, committed to European integration, running the key member-states: Helmut Kohl in Germany, François Mitterrand in France, Felipe Gonzalez in Spain, Giulio Andreotti and Benito Craxi in Italy, Ruud Lubbers in the Netherlands, Wilfried Martens in Belgium – and, at least for his first three years in Brussels, Margaret Thatcher in Britain. When he became Commission president in 1985, Delors correctly surmised that the best project for reviving a stagnating European Union would be building a single market. The 1970s had been a challenging economic decade. Countries were devaluating their currencies regularly, disrupting intraEuropean trade. And annual economic growth had averaged just 2.2 per cent from 1973 until 1985 in the 12 countries that would go on to form the eurozone, down from 5.3 per cent between 1960 and 1973. A single market offered an opportunity to rekindle both growth and European integration. Crucially, Delors persuaded Thatcher to back the idea, and she sent Arthur Cockfield as the British commissioner to take charge of the single market. Delors also, and with more difficulty, persuaded Thatcher to sign the Single European Act, a new treaty which abolished the national veto over much single market legislation. The single market could not have been implemented without that reform. CER INSIGHT: TEN REFLECTIONS ON JACQUES DELORS 4 January 2024
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