Jacques Delors, former European commission President and former Socialist minister, leaves the Elysee Palace in Paris after a meeting with France's President Nicolas Sarkozy July 5, 2007. REUTERS/Jean-Paul Pelissier/File Photo
(Reuters) -Former European Commission President Jacques Delors, a founding father of the European Union's historic single currency project, has died at the age of 98.
Delors, an ardent advocate of post-war European integration, served as president of the European Commission, the EU executive, for three terms - longer than any other holder of the office - from January 1985 until the end of 1994.
French President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to his compatriot as a statesman who served as an "inexhaustible architect of our Europe" and a fighter for human justice.
Michel Barnier, the European Union's chief negotiator during Britain's divorce from the EU, said Delors had been an inspiration and a reason to "believe in a 'certain idea' of politics, of France, and of Europe".
Agence France Presse (AFP) first reported Delors' death, quoting his daughter.
(Reporting by Gnaneshwar Rajan in Bengaluru and Richard Lough in Paris; Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Mark Heinrich)
