Delors, Jacques (Jacques Lucien Jean Delors) 1925-, French economist and politician and European statesman, president (1985-95) of the European Commission. Beginning in the 1940s, he held a series of posts in French banking and state planning, eventually becoming (1969) an adviser to Gaullist Prime Minister Jacques Chaban-Delmas. In 1974 he joined the French Socialist party, and from 1979 to 1981 he served in the European Parliament. Under President François Mitterrand, Delors served as economics and finance minister (1981-83) and economics, finance, and budget minister (1983-84), helping to revive the French economy. In 1985 he became president of the European Commission, the executive body of the European Community (EC; now the European Union [EU]). With British commissioner Lord Cockfield, he crafted and won approval of the Single European Act (1986), which laid the groundwork for the creation of a single EC market in 1993. Delors also oversaw the transformation of the EC into the EU, which moved the EC nations toward a single currency and greater cooperation on defense.