“Everything that is concrete today for Europeans was achieved by him,” greets the founder of EuropaNova

Former President of the European Commission Jacques Delors died on Wednesday at the age of 98. He is considered the one who shaped the contours of contemporary Europe.

“Everything that is concrete today for Europeans has been put in place, carried out by Jacques Delors”greets Wednesday 27 on franceinfo Guillaume Klossa, founder of the EuropaNova think tank, after the death at the age of 98 of the former President of the European Commission between 1985 and 1995. “For him, Europe had to be a union of states and citizens that had to walk on its own two legs” and “what was very important for Jacques Delors was that he believed much more in society than in politics”adds Guillaume Klossa who worked with him.

franceinfo: Jacques Delors is the first French president of the European Commission. He was appointed in 1985, and remained there for ten years. What we remember about him is this man’s European commitment?

Guillaume Klossa: This is obviously its European commitment, it is also the Delors method which associated the common European good, civil society and foresight. His method was extremely powerful. He questioned what was good for Europe and how to mobilize society and politics so that this common good could be achieved. This is how he created the euro. Everything that is concrete today for Europeans has been put in place, carried out by Jacques Delors.

Did you meet him and work with him?

I had the chance to meet him in 2005 after the referendum and we discussed a lot about how to relaunch Europe after the French no [au référendum sur une Constitution européenne]. Europe was in total inertia. For two years, France and Europe were completely blocked, especially after the French no [au référendum de 2005]. His reflex was to say that we had to mobilize society and together we set up the States General of Europe in 2007 which was the biggest mobilization of Europeans since the post-war period. According to him, it was necessary to be able to define a general European interest which is not a federal interest but which combines both national interests and the interests of citizens.

“For him, Europe had to be a union of states and citizens which had to walk on its own two legs. Ultimately, Europe as it advances today is this project that Delors carried and which remains insufficiently supported by the citizen pillar.”

Guillaume Klossa, founder of the EuropaNova think tank

at franceinfo

What was central for Jacques Delors in this European construction?

What was very important for Jacques Delors was that he believed much more in society than in politics. What has been done over the last five years proves that Europe is responding to citizens’ needs, Covid-19 with almost half a billion European citizens who have been vaccinated, the recovery plan, these are things that Delors would have wanted wish to do. Where the French have trouble with Europe is that they have difficulty taking ownership of the European project. There is a real subject here on the construction of a real European transnational democracy. He thought that this construction should be done not only with political leaders, but also with the unions with whom he had worked extensively. He was a Christian social democrat.