European Union pioneer Jacques Delors dead at 98

Dec. 28 (UPI) -- Former European Commission President Jacques Delors, widely seen as the pioneer of the continent's single market and currency union that led to the modern European Union has died, his family said. He was 98 years old.

The death of the Frenchman, the only EC president to serve two back-to-back five-year terms from 1985-1995, was confirmed by daughter Martine Aubry who said he died Wednesday at his home in Paris.

The left-leaning Christian, who worked at the French central bank prior to entering politics, played a central role in pushing through the 1987 Single European Act which set the goal of a functioning borderless internal market with free movement of goods, people and capital within six years.

In his second term, Delors oversaw the birth of the EU under the 1993 Maastricht Treaty which set out the roadmap for member countries to adopt the euro.

He is also credited with establishing the Schengen Area under which people move freely across borders without checks, including non-EU citizens after initial entry procedures, enlarging the bloc and foreign aid funding.

Sitting European Commision President Ursula von der Leyen, heaped praise on her predecessor calling him a "visionary who made our Europe stronger."

"His life's work is a united, dynamic and prosperous European Union," she wrote in a post on X.

"It has shaped entire generations of Europeans, including mine."

She called on the member countries and people of the EU to continue "constantly renewing our Europe" as the best way to honor his legacy.

French President Emmanuel Macron's tribute read simply: "Statesman of French destiny. Inexhaustible craftsman of our Europe. Fighter for human justice."

"His commitment, his ideals and his righteousness will always inspire us. I salute his work and his memory and share the pain of his loved ones," Macron wrote in a post on X.

In Britain, which had a turbulent relationship with Delors, who was vilified as a fanatical federalist, and his EU project ultimately quitting the bloc in 2020, Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson said "his ideas were never right for Britain" but added that "no one can doubt his legacy" as a "pre-eminent architect" of the EU and "a towering political figure."

"Without Delors there would have been no Maastricht treaty and no euro. Indeed, without Delors there would have been no single market," he said.

"He harnessed post-Cold War anxieties about Germany to create a new federal structure for Europe and he did it with dazzling panache.