In extracts from Jacques Delors’ foreword to the book by Pascal Fontaine, Jean Monnet, l’Inspirateur, published in 1988, the former President of the European Commission from 1985 to 1995 pays tribute to Jean Monnet, considered as the founding father of a united Europe.
Transcription of the interview with Jacques Delors, President of the Commission of the European Communities from 1985 to 1995, conducted by the Centre Virtuel de la Connaissance sur l’Europe (CVCE) on 16 December 2009 at the Paris-based premises of the think tank ‘Notre Europe’, of which Jacques Delors is the founding director. The interview was conducted by Étienne Deschamps, a Researcher at the CVCE, and particularly focuses on the following subjects: the origins of Delors’s interest in European integration, the influence of the personalist movement, the National Planning Board, Jacques Chaban-Delmas, social dialogue and ‘New Society’, Delors’s early experience in the European Communities and role as Member of the European Parliament, and European political parties.
On 23 November 1992, Jacques Delors, President of the European Commission (on the left), talks to Henning Christophersen, Vice-President of the Commission (on the right), just before the opening, in Brussels, of the ECOFIN Council, during which the Finance Ministers of the Twelve will attempt to find a solution to the European monetary crisis.
On 20 May 2003, in Brussels, Jacques Delors gives a speech at the conference organised by the Greek Presidency of the Council of the European Union to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Agence Europe. At a time when the work of the European Convention is the focus of attention, Jacques Delors, as a reply to those who call for the ‘refoundation of Europe', advocates a ‘Europe continued' on the basis of the institutional legacy of the founding fathers of Europe, the indispensability of the Community method and the principle of ‘differentiation'.
