On Friday 5 January, France and the institutions of the European Union paid tribute to Jacques Delors, President of the European Commission between 1985 and 1995 and former French Minister of the Economy and Finance, who died at the end of December 2023 at the age of 98 (see EUROPE 13320/1).
French President Emmanuel Macron hailed Mr Delors as a “European of integrity” whose work at the head of the EU institution helped to shape “the face of Europe today”, in a speech delivered at an official ceremony in the courtyard of the Hôtel des Invalides in Paris. He noted, in particular, the creation of the single market, bolstered by the European cohesion policy, the foundations of economic and monetary union, the Schengen area project for the free movement of people and the creation of the Erasmus student mobility programme.
Highlighting the “modernity” of Delors’ formula that “competition stimulates, solidarity unites and cooperation strengthens”, Mr Macron felt that Jacques Delors had “just passed the baton” and that it was up to the leaders present at the ceremony, as well as the citizens of Europe, to continue the unfinished business, this “arduous” and “unsteady” path, “which will reconcile the Nation and Europe, economic strength and social justice, the real and the ideal, together at last”.
Among those present at the ceremony were the Presidents of the European Council, Charles Michel, the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, and the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, as well as several EU heads of state or government, including the German President, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the Belgian Prime Minister, Alexander De Croo, and even the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán.
To see Mr Macron’s speech, go to https://aeur.eu/f/AAF (in French) (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)