Jacques Delors, the former European Commission president, has passed away, AFP reported on Wednesday, citing his daughter, Martine Aubry.

Mr 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 1995.

He was a key figure in the expansion of the single market and the creation of the euro currency.

Mr Delors, a Socialist, had a high-profile political career in France, where he served as finance minister under president Francois Mitterrand from 1981 to 1984.

But he declined to run for president in 1995, despite being overwhelmingly ahead in the polls, a decision he later put down to “a desire for independence that was too great”.

He headed up the European Commission from 1985 to 1995, a decade that saw major steps in the bloc’s integration.

These included the creation of the common market; the Schengen accords for travel; the Erasmus programme for student exchanges; and the creation of the bloc’s single currency, the euro.

His drive for increased integration met with resistance in some member countries, especially Britain under prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

“Up Yours Delors” was a famous 1990 front-page headline in The Sun newspaper, which voiced its concerns about a single currency and increased powers for the European Parliament.

Mr Delors later founded think tanks with the aim of furthering European federalism and, in recent years, warned of the dangers of populism in Europe, also calling for “audacity” in dealing with the Brexit fallout.