Jacques Delors quotes

Jacques Delors is a French economist and politician, widely recognized for his role in European integration. As President of the European Commission, he was instrumental in advancing the single market and laying the foundations for the euro. He is celebrated as a visionary leader who shaped the future of the European Union. Here are 50 of his quotes:

Fundamentally, American society is composed of individuals who don't go out of their way to do each other favours.

Jacques Delors

If we do not succeed with political union...then the historic decline of Europe which began with the First World War will resume.

Jacques Delors

The Americans should stop insulting us, I'm not going to be an accomplice to the depopulation of the land. It's not up to the Americans to tell us how to organise our farm policy and the balance of our society. Their attitude is to treat the EC as if it had the plague and then encourage the rest of the world to join in.

Jacques Delors

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.

Jacques Delors

Politicians who attack the dream of a federal Europe are racist bigots intent on undermining the Continent's freedom and peace.

Jacques Delors

This weakening is worsened by the widening distance between the governed and their governments.

Jacques Delors

The European model is, first, a social and economic system founded on the role of the market, for no computer in the world can process information better than the market.

Jacques Delors

This desire for equity must not lead to an excess of welfare, where nobody is responsible for anything.

Jacques Delors

I would not be opposed to devising a new system of pensions, in which one part was based on collective provision, but which also gave incentives for people to take out an additional, personal plan.

Jacques Delors

I have a passion for reform, for the progress of man and society. I cannot stand the feeling of being useless.

Jacques Delors

What is perceived as a cost by some will turn out to be the competitive advantage of Europe by helping maintain a well-trained, secure workforce, open to change.

Jacques Delors

We must define the political Europe that we want. We must plead for the federal approach.

Jacques Delors

The social and human balance of our societies depend on the farming world.

Jacques Delors

Socialism was not the socialization of losses and the privatization of profits.

Jacques Delors

It is impossible to build Europe on only deregulation...1992 is much more than the creation of an internal market abolishing barriers to the free movement of goods services and investment...The internal market should be desgined to benefit each and every citizen of the Community. It is therefore necessary to improve workers' living and working conditions, and to provide better protection for their health and safety at work...Europe needs you.

Jacques Delors

Federalism is a guideline, not a pornographic word, you can speak it out loud...We have been focusing too much on a country that has said no, no, no!

Jacques Delors

The European model is in danger if we obliterate the principle of personal responsibility.

Jacques Delors

I cannot resign myself to the decline of Europe, and of France.

Jacques Delors

My problem is how to find the best way of being useful.

Jacques Delors

The driving force behind the liberal counter-offensive in Europe has been a reaction against irresponsibility.

Jacques Delors

Yes, the European model remains superior to that of America and Japan.

Jacques Delors

The problem with a purely collective system is not only that it requires economic growth, and the right sort of demographic trends, but that it prevents people thinking about their futures in a responsible way.

Jacques Delors