Paper Titles & Abstracts

Jacques Delors was clearly present at the creation of Economic and Monetary Union, most noticeably through his role as chair of the Committee for the Study of Economic and Monetary Union, but scholars are divided as to his influence on the eventual design of the single currency. This paper looks at Delors' ideational leadership vis-à-vis the euro, covering his time as Member of the European Parliament, French Finance Minister, Commission President and public champion of ever-closer Europe. This discussion documents Delors' views over time on a range of issues relating to the governance of the euro area, including the desirability of monetary union, the case for central bank independence, the necessity of national and European fiscal rules, the legitimacy of decision-making in EMU and the sustainability of a single currency without political union. In so doing, it seeks to square Delors' vocal support for a single currency at the time of its inception with his more recent claim that he considered the design of EMU to be flawed from the outset. This discussion is situated within wider debates about the tension between economic ideas and political advocacy in supranational entrepreneurship.