Jacques Delors Quotes
My objective is that before the end of the millennium Europe should have a true federation. The Commission should become a political executive which can define essential common interests... responsible before the European Parliament and before the nation-states represented how you will, by the European Council or by a second chamber of national parliaments.
Delors, Jacques. Quoted in Delors: Inside the House that Jacques Built, by Charles Grant, Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 1994.
This was written after the war when Germany was divided into four parts, later to become East and West Germany. German historical and cultural aggression and militarism, most policy makers feared, would cause more war if Germany was unified and allowed to become a strong state. NATO and The European Union became the federations that Kennan was seeking. And Germany underwent a radical cultural and political change.
The proposal had many of the characteristics of the EEC adopted years later.
Great Britain however did join the European Common Market although it did not give up its own currency and adopt the Euro as most of the other European nations did.
Jacques Lucien Jean Delors is a French politician who served as the 8th President of the European Commission from 1985 to 1995. He served as Minister of Finance of France from 1981 to 1984. He was a Member of the European Parliament from 1979 to 1981. As President Delors was the most visible and influential leader in European affairs. He implemented the policies that closely linked the member nations together and tirelessly promoted the need for unity. He had critics but on the whole was well respected for his imagination and commitment to the cause of European unity. His two main achievements were creating a single market that made possible the free movement of persons, capital, goods, and services within the Community. He also headed the committee that proposed the monetary union to create the Euro, a new currency to replace individual national currencies. This was done in the 1992 Maastricht Treaty.
