He created a single market that made the free movement of persons, capital, goods, and services within the European Economic Community (EEC) possible.

In 1969, he became social affairs adviser to the Gaullist Prime Minister Jacques Chaban-Delmas, a move which was presented as part of Chaban's outreach to the centre-ground and first attracted media attention to Delors personally.

[6] In opposition to the strident neoliberalism of US president Ronald Reagan (1981–1989) that dominated the American political agenda, Delors promoted an alternative interpretation of capitalism that embedded it in the European social structure.

His emphasis on the social dimension of Europe was and remains central to a strong narrative that became a key element of the self-identification of the European Union.

Polls showed that he would have a very good chance of defeating either of the main conservative contenders, Prime Minister Édouard Balladur and Mayor of Paris Jacques Chirac.

[12] However Delors declined to run and the eventual Socialist nominee, Lionel Jospin, was defeated in the 1995 presidential election by Jacques Chirac.

Other prominent supporters include Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Guy Verhofstadt, Sylvie Goulard, Andrew Duff, and Elmar Brok.

"[19] On 25 June 2015, Donald Tusk announced that Delors would become the third person to have the title of Honorary Citizen of Europe bestowed upon them, in recognition of "his remarkable contribution to the development of the European project".

[22] They had a daughter, Martine Aubry, who served as First Secretary of the Socialist Party from 2008 to 2012,[1] and a son, Jean-Paul Delors, who was a journalist and died aged 29 in 1982 from leukaemia.

[24] He was honored with a state funeral at the Hôtel des Invalides in Paris on 5 January in the presence of political figures from all over Europe[25] before his burial alongside his wife and his son at the Fontaine-la-Gaillarde cemetery.