The return of Jacques Delors

Date: 14/02/04

The gloom of a much-lauded ex-president of the European Commission

LIKE so many patriotic Americans, believers in the cause of European unity talk reverentially of the “founding fathers”: such men as Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman, Paul-Henri Spaak and others, who laid the foundations of the modern European Union in the aftermath of the second world war. In the 1980s a new generation of builders of Europe emerged: Helmut Kohl, the German chancellor, Franois Mitterrand, the French president and, perhaps above all, Jacques Delors. As president of the European Commission between 1985 and 1995, Mr Delors drove the establishment first of the single market and then of the treaty that led to a single European currency. Today's European Union is so much his creation that the best biography of Mr Delors calls the EU “the house that Jacques built”.

But the master-builder now seems rather worried about the stability of his own construction. In an interview to mark the publication of his autobiography*, Mr Delors argued that “we're at a serious turning-point for Europe.” In his view, the European Union must find a realistic way of working with 27-plus members, or else “the three big countries - perhaps tomorrow, four or five - will remove their cards from the table and choose to play alone. And that will be the end of the dream of the fathers of Europe.” Such an event, says Mr Delors, would in effect mark the end of the European Union; and it is by no means a remote possibility. Asked if he puts the chances of the effective collapse of the EU as high as 50%, he replies simply: “Yes.” The only way out of the danger, he argues, is to allow smaller groups of countries to forge ahead with deeper integration and their own forms of co-operation, if they so desire.

It is the privilege of old men to warn the next generation of the pitfalls that lie ahead. But, in conversation, Mr Delors is at pains to avoid belittling his successors. He even apologises if he appears to be stressing his own achievements. Now aged 78, he operates from a modest office in a think-tank near the Opera in Paris, and has an owlish, slightly shy quality. As boss of the commission, however, he was noted for his strategic vision and occasional ruthlessness. He has always had his temperamental side. Both at the commission and in previous political jobs in France, he was noted for his frequent threats of resignation.

It would be a mistake to dismiss Mr Delors's warnings as just another fit of histrionics, however. His worry that the EU could fall apart under the strain of enlargement is widely shared, even if none of today's EU leaders expresses such concerns so bluntly. Mr Delors's anxiety also reflects a peculiarly French worry about enlarging the Union from its present membership of 15 countries to 25 in May, with more coming. The French elite has become used to dominating the Union, never more so than in the heyday of Mr Delors, and it is clearly anxious that enlargement could spell an end to this happy arrangement. The elite's anxieties have transmitted themselves to the general public; opinion polls show stronger hostility to EU enlargement in France than in any of the other 14 member countries.

Mr Delors himself sounds deeply ambivalent. On the one hand he deplores the lack of enthusiasm for enlargement, which he blames on political leaders in western Europe who have failed to explain the “happiness and the historic opportunity” involved in opening the EU to the countries of central Europe. On the other, he regrets the failure of European leaders to embrace his idea of establishing a European confederation, which would have offered the countries of central Europe a high level of political co-operation with the rest of the EU, but delayed full integration until many years hence.

In his book, Mr Delors recalls discussing the idea of a confederation with Mitterrand in 1992. “He had chosen to have dinner for two in one of the libraries of the Elysee palace - perhaps for fear of hidden microphones, what do I know?” Mitterrand seemed excited by the idea of a confederation; indeed he had proposed something similar three years earlier. But in the end the proposal went nowhere. Mr Delors now says he regards this as a big “missed opportunity”. In reality, though, it is difficult to imagine that a country such as Poland would ever have accepted what sounds like “second-class membership” of the EU.

A second helping of Delors?

The views of Jacques Delors on the future of the European Union are of more than passing interest just now. Today's commission president, Romano Prodi, will pack his bags for Italy over the summer, and a successor must be appointed by June. Asked for his views as to how the next commission president should approach his job, Mr Delors suggests that he should remember that he is “the servant of the governments and of Europe.” It is a surprisingly (and perhaps disingenuously) humble note from a man who was noted for the determination with which he promoted his own ideas when he was in the top job in Brussels.

Yet one of the keys to Mr Delors's effectiveness as commission president was his ability to forge a creative working relationship with the heads of key European governments. Bertie Ahern, the Irish prime minister, who as current president of the EU is leading the search for a new commission president, is not the only one said to be looking for another Delors. The former commission president's technocratic qualities and his ability to forge a consensus would come in handy. But Jacques Delors will go down in the history books, above all else, as a visionary who pushed through breathtakingly ambitious political and economic projects for the European Union. At a time when the EU is still struggling to digest all the changes made in the Delors era, as well as to cope with the challenges of enlargement, yet another dynamic personality with ambitious ideas for Europe is arguably the last thing that it needs.

* “Mémoires”, by Jacques Delors. Plon. €25

Commentary features talks with ex-European Commission President, Jacques Delors, on the challenges facing the EU.

• Primary Source