Jacques Delors Quotes

• The European model is in danger if we obliterate the principle of personal responsibility.

  Jacques Delors

  Responsibility, Europe, Principles

  15 Copy quote

• My problem is how to find the best way of being useful.

  Jacques Delors

  Way, Problem, Best Way

  10 Copy quote

• My objective is that before the end of the millennium Europe should have a true federation. The Commission should become a political executive which can define essential common interests... responsible before the European Parliament and before the nation-states represented how you will, by the European Council or by a second chamber of national parliaments.

  Jacques Delors

  Should Have, Europe, Political

  "Delors: Inside the House that Jacques Built". Book by Charles Grant, 1994.

  8 Copy quote

• ...within ten years 80% of our economic legislation, perhaps even fiscal and social as well' would come from the EU.

  Jacques Delors

  Years, Economic, Social

  21 Copy quote

• We will have to create an avant-garde.... We could have a Union for the enlarged Europe, and a Federation for the avant-garde.

  Jacques Delors

  Europe, Avant Garde, Unions

  18 Copy quote

• I cannot resign myself to the decline of Europe, and of France.

  Jacques Delors

  Europe, Aggravation, France

  14 Copy quote

• This weakening is worsened by the widening distance between the governed and their governments.

  Jacques Delors

  Distance, Government, Long

  15 Copy quote

• The European model is, first, a social and economic system founded on the role of the market, for no computer in the world can process information better than the market.

  Jacques Delors

  Europe, Firsts, Roles

  "Europe's Promise: Why the European Way is the Best Hope in an Insecure Age". Book by Steven Hill, 2010.

  15 Copy quote

• The problem of how we finance the welfare state should not obscure a separate issue: if each person thinks he has an inalienable right to welfare, no matter what happens to the world, that's not equity, it's just creating a society where you can't ask anything of people.

  Jacques Delors

  Thinking, Creating, Issues

  17 Copy quote

• Therefore one should speak at the same time of national citizenship and wider European citizenship.

  Jacques Delors

  Europe, Citizenship, Speak

  11 Copy quote

• The unions may continue to decline, but if they do, it'll be their fault.

  Jacques Delors

  Aggravation, Unions, May

  15 Copy quote

• For me, socialism has always been about liberty and solidarity, but also about responsibility.

  Jacques Delors

  Responsibility, Eugenics, Liberty

  13 Copy quote

• Yes, the European model remains superior to that of America and Japan.

  Jacques Delors

  Japan, Europe, America

  4 Copy quote

• The driving force behind the liberal counter-offensive in Europe has been a reaction against irresponsibility.

  Jacques Delors

  Europe, Driving, Offensive

  12 Copy quote

• We have to struggle against the conservatives from all sides, not only the right-wingers, but also the left-wing conservatives who don't want to change anything.

  Jacques Delors

  Struggle, Wings, Want

  7 Copy quote

• This desire for equity must not lead to an excess of welfare, where nobody is responsible for anything.

  Jacques Delors

  Desire, Excess, Welfare

  8 Copy quote

• The problem with a purely collective system is not only that it requires economic growth, and the right sort of demographic trends, but that it prevents people thinking about their futures in a responsible way.

  Jacques Delors

  Thinking, People, Growth

  22 Copy quote

• Even in Britain, the trade unions tell me that employment contracts have less protection than in the past.

  Jacques Delors

  Past, Employment, Unions

  8 Copy quote

• Cinema explains American society. It's like a Western, with good guys and bad guys, where the weak don't have a place.

  Jacques Delors

  Guy, Cinema, Weak

  13 Copy quote

• These days there are not enough of such intermediary groups, between the state and the individual, with the result that political leaders are often unduly guided by opinion polls.

  Jacques Delors

  Leader, Political, Groups

  7 Copy quote

• If you don't have collective agreements between unions and employers, governments have to legislate more.

  Jacques Delors

  Government, Agreement, Unions

  8 Copy quote

• The unions still have a job to do, representing their members' interests to governments and parliaments. And I think collective agreements still have a role, alongside markets and laws.

  Jacques Delors

  Jobs, Thinking, Government

  7 Copy quote

• I would not be opposed to devising a new system of pensions, in which one part was based on collective provision, but which also gave incentives for people to take out an additional, personal plan.

  Jacques Delors

  People, Incentives, Provision

  8 Copy quote

• My presidential victory, if it had happened, would have been artificial in relation to the Socialist party. It may be that on my deathbed, I will come to regret my decision, but for the moment, I live at peace with it.

  Jacques Delors

  Regret, Party, Presidential

  7 Copy quote

• Any union that can't accept workers choosing their own representatives through universal franchise is finished.

  Jacques Delors

  Philosophy, Political, Unions

  4 Copy quote

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