Jacques Delors

This work is the first systematic study of the presidency of the European Commission. Drawing upon cases of attempted leadership by Jacques Delors, the Commission President from 1985-95, it examines the leadership capacity of the office-holder. This points to the inherently shared and contingent nature of Commission President's leadership in a Union where the leadership sources are widely dispersed. While this is essentially an empirical study, Endo addresses some of the theoretical implications of its findings and resulting issues.

Drawing on exclusive interviews with Jacques Delors himself, this comprehensive, accessibly written study of his life and Commission presidency is an invaluable resource for all those interested in European and French Politics. Debunking populist images and myths about him, this book presents a balanced examination of a widely misinterpreted political figure. This book also raises important issues such as: the role of individual leaders in contemporary politics the legitimacy of the European Union as a political system.

Since 1985, when Jacques Delors became President of the European Commission, no politician has made a bigger impact on Western Europe. But while his successes encouraged countries outside the Community to seek membership, they also provoked a wave of anti-Brussels sentiment in the 1990s. As The Economist's Brussels correspondent, Charles Grant had unique access to Jacques Delors, his friends and enemies, and the European institutions. This is the first major biography of the man who, rising from the humblest of origins, became the architect of the new Europe. It is also a fascinating and revealing analysis of how Brussels, the house that Jacques built, really works.

Jacques Delors has been the most successful President of the European Commission in the history of the European Community. The events of his time in Brussels may have constituted the best chance yet to create a new supranational order to consolidate European political and social arrangements. Jacques Delors and European Integration reconsiders the last decade of EC history, and the Maastricht period in particular, from the point of view of Delors′s unfolding strategy. The book′s remarkable data sources include the author′s observations of the day-to-day work of the Commission under Delors and access to key personnel and documents. The author explores the ways in which Delors and his team tried to capitalize upon the complex openings in Europe′s political opportunity structures from the mid-1980s. The "1992" programme to complete the Single Market galvanized European energies and contributed to renewed optimism. Maastricht and its sequels have proven less successful. Jacques Delors and European Integration follows processes around the Maastricht Treaty from inside, observing the complex system of European institutions at work. What kind of turning point will Maastricht turn out to be? The book attempts to reach a conclusion about what, in retrospect, will certainly be seen as one of the most daring experiments at transnational politics of modern times.

"Jacques Delors has soared to prominence as the first transnational political leader of the new Europe. Reviled by the British tabloids and lauded by the TUC, the President of the European Commission continues to provoke strong reactions across the political spectrum with his astute and relentless drive for European economic and political integration." "In this new book Delors, assisted by the research group Clisthene, elaborates the strategy behind the Social Charter and the Delors Plan which has delivered Europe to the brink of 'the Single European Act'. At the end of 1992 European economic integration will become a fact, and pressures towards political integration, particularly in the areas of defence and foreign policy, will become irresistible." "Delors explains that his conception of the Community arose as a response to a menacing international economic conjuncture, and outlines the role of an integrated Europe in the new world order. He points out that the financial aid made available through EC social programmes to poorer areas already exceeds the total spent by the Americans under the Marshall Plan. In a detailed economic survey he predicts that a single open market of 320 million people will benefit member economies by increasing GNP by 4.5 per cent, reducing prices by 6 per cent, and creating 2 million jobs. Drawing extensively on the French experience, he shows how regulated integration can maintain Europe's international competitiveness whilst ensuring proper wage levels and working conditions for its population." "But, as Delors reminds us, nobody falls in love with a growth rate. Our Europe is more than an economic and political programme: it is a work of great vision which explores how we might live and act together to transform education, work, and free time. Including an introduction written for this edition, Delors' first book in English is certain to be as controversial and influential as its author."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

The outcome of a three-year process of consultation by a distinguished panel chaired by Jacques Delors, this reports considers the requirements for an education for the twenty-first century capable of tapping and nurturing the rich potential for learning inherent in every individual. Education is viewed firstly in its social setting - in the light of the challenges of global interdependence, enhanced democratic participation and sustainable development. The report goes on to define the four pillars of learning to live together - and to review the task of formal and nonformal education in the context of the tasks of formal and nonformal education in the context of the learning society. A series of pointers and recommendations complete a document that is establishing itself as required reading for anyone with a profesional or informed interest in educational matters. Published also in Arabic, Chinese, English, French and Spanish

Jacques Delors has been the most successful President of the European Commission in the history of the European Community. This text reconsiders EC history from the mid 1980s, and the Maastricht period in particular, from the point of view of Delors's unfolding strategy.

The creation of the European Union arguably ranks among the most extraordinary achievements in modern world politics. Observers disagree, however, about the reasons why European governments have chosen to co- ordinate core economic policies and surrender sovereign perogatives. This text analyzes the history of the region's movement toward economic and political union. Do these unifying steps demonstrate the pre-eminence of national security concerns, the power of federalist ideals, the skill of political entrepreneurs like Jean Monnet and Jacques Delors, or the triumph of technocratic planning? Moravcsik rejects such views. Economic interdependence has been, he maintains, the primary force compelling these democracies to move in this surprising direction. Politicians rationally pursued national economic advantage through the exploitation of asymmetrical interdependence and the manipulation of institutional commitments.