- Born on 20 July 1925 in Paris (F)

- Nationality: French

- Head of Department (1945‒1962) and Attaché in the Private Office of the Director-General for securities and the money market at the Banque de France (1950‒1962)

- Member of the section for planning and investments in the Economic and Social Council (1959‒1961)

- Head of Social Affairs at the National Planning Board (1962‒1969)

- Secretary-General of the Interministerial Committee for vocational training and social advancement created by Prime Ministers Jacques Chaban-Delmas and Pierre Messmer (1969‒1973)

- Adviser for Social and Cultural Affairs (1969) then special assistant to Prime Minister Jacques Chaban-Delmas (1971‒1972)

- Member of the General Council of the Banque de France (1973‒1979)

- Associate Professor of business management at Paris IX University (1974‒1979)

- National Delegate for the Socialist Party on international economic relations (1976‒1981)

- Member of the European Parliament, Chairman of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (1979‒1981)

- Minister for the Economy and Finance (1981‒1983) then Minister for the Economy, Finance, and Budget (1983‒1984)

- President of the Commission of the European Communities (1985‒1995)

- President of the UNESCO International Commission on Education for the Twenty-first Century (1994‒1999)

- President of the Administrative Council of the College of Europe in Bruges (1995‒1999)

- Founder President of the think tank Notre Europe (since 1996)

- President of the Council for Employment, Income and Social Cohesion (CERC) (2000‒2009)