In this interview excerpt, Jacques Delors, President of the Commission of the European Communities from 1985 to 1995, discusses his experience during the war and the reasons for his involvement before and after the conflict in movements such as Jeunesse étudiante chrétienne (Young Christian Students — JEC), and especially Jeunesse ouvrière chrétienne (Young Christian Workers — JOC). He emphasises the importance for his future political experience of his activities from the 1950s onwards in the French Confederation of Christian Workers (CFTC), and describes his brief spell in the Popular Republican Movement (MRP) in the early 1950s. He also looks back on the appeal made by Robert Schuman.