Jacques Delors, father of European integration, dies at 98

FILE PHOTO: European Union President Jacques Delors listens to a question during a press conference on the book "In search of Europe" October 21, 1994, at the EU headquarters. REUTERS/Nathalie Koulischer/File Photo

(Reuters) -Jacques Delors, a passionate advocate of post-war European integration and a founding father of the European Union's single currency project, has died, his family said. He was 98.

The French socialist 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, a time of rapid change for Europe's emerging union.