Honorary Citizen of Europe is an honour bestowed by the European Council of the European Union, for extraordinary work to promote European cooperation.
It has only been bestowed on three people:
Jean Monnet (2 April 1976) [1] 
Helmut Kohl (11 December 1998) [2] Jacques Delors (25 June 2015) [3] A French civil servant, businessman and diplomat formally recognized by the EU as one of eleven founding fathers, and the only founding father who held neither elected nor ministerial office in his lifetime, Monnet served as the first president of the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community, one of EU's principal precursor organization with two of its key institutions, the High Authority and the Common Assembly, respectively formed the basis of the European Commission and the European Parliament.
Monnet steered France's post war economic recovery as the first head of France's General Planning Commission (France) through the Monnet Plan, which in turn was the impetus for the Schuman Plan, a proposal initiated by Monnet and tabled by France's foreign minister Robert Schuman, the only other Frenchman among the eleven founding fathers, that created European Coal and Steel Community. The plan called for the integration of France's and Germany's the coal and steel industries, two industries essential to waging war at the time, and by extension economic integration and interdependence, with the ultimate objective to "make it plain that any war between France and Germany becomes not merely unthinkable, but materially impossible." [4] : para 6
The European Council conferred the honorary citizen by resolution at its fourth meeting, held in Luxembourg in April 1976. The resolution explicitly references the role of economic ties as a foundation for political union.
The positive balance-sheet that can be drawn up at the end of this first stage, and on the eve of progress towards political unification, is something we owe in large measure to the boldness and breadth of vision of a handful of men. Among them, Jean Monnet has played a leading role, whether as inspirer of the Schuman Plan, first president of the High Authority, or founder of the Action Committee for the United States of Europe. In these various capacities, Jean Monnet has resolutely attacked the forces of inertia in Europe’s political and economic structure, with the aim of establishing a new type of relationship between States, making apparent their de facto solidarity and giving it institutional form.
As a realist, Monnet took economic interests as his starting-point, but without abandoning his vision of achieving a broader understanding among the men and nations of Europe which would extend into all fields. Sometimes, this objective may have been lost to view amid the vicissitudes of the unification of Europe. Nevertheless, that objective has never been disavowed. Now, more than ever, it should serve as a guide, enabling us to rise above our task of daily administration and give it its true and substantial meaning. [5]
The first Chancellor of post-unification Germany is formally recognized by the European Union as one of 21 "EU pioneers" [6] . His acceptance of the demand by French president François Mitterrand to abandon the Deutsche Mark in exchange for France's support for reunification was instrumental in the adoption of the euro.
European Council conferred the honorary citizen by resolution at its 74th meeting, held three months after Kohl's electoral defeat in Vienna in December 1998, in recognition of his decisive actions that led to German reunification, the impact of his push for reunification on the consolidation of European integration and toward the formation of the Economic and Monetary Union, and eventually single currency, through the Maastricht Treaty.
Deeply imbued with home values and marked by his youthful experiences during the war and in the post-war period, he remained steadfastly committed to the basic convictions acquired early in life. Above all, his firm belief that ever closer economic and political union in Europe was a force for peace and that it was possible for his homeland to be reunified in that framework was vindicated by the epoch-making events of his term of office. With the same dedication he set to work to heal the damaging divide that split our continent in two.
...
The creation of German unity and the consolidation of European unification, culminating in Economic and Monetary Union, are Dr Helmut Kohl's life's work. [2]
Kohl was further honoured with the European act of state in honour of Helmut Kohl, the first act of state in the history of the European Union, following his death in 2017. In recognition of their role as the architects of the Maastricht Treaty which established the EU and the Euro, Kohl and Mitterrand were recognized as "EU Pioneers" by the European Union in 2021 when it expanded its list of eleven founding fathers to include eight women and the two men, a move to remedy the absence of women in the original list. [6]
A French politician who served as the eighth president of the European Commission from 1985 to 1995, he precipitated and implemented some of the most important steps toward Europe's integration. His his three terms saw the creation of the European single market that made the free movement of persons, capital, goods, and services within the European Economic Community (EEC) possible. He headed the Delors Committee, which proposed the monetary union to create the euro, and oversaw the establishment of the European Union through the conclusion of the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 and its coming ot force in 1993.
European Council conferred the honorary citizen on June 25, 2015 at its 169th meeting. The resolution connects the EU founding fathers' vision of peace and solidarity to the implementation of the actual administration by specifically naming EU's various milestone accomplishments oversaw by Delors, honouring him as the father of the European Union of the 21st century.
During his term at the head of the Commission from 1985 to 1995, the European Communities, which later became the European Union, made historic progress: the Single European Act, the Treaty of Maastricht, the Economic and Monetary Union, the establishment of the Structural Funds and the creation of the Cohesion Fund, European citizenship, the Erasmus programme, the European Social Charter, the accession of Portugal and Spain, followed by Austria, Sweden and Finland, the launch of the enlargement process following the fall of the Berlin Wall…. All this has profoundly shaped the European Union that we know today. In this sense, it is fair to say that Jacques Delors is certainly a founding father of the European Union of the 21st century. This true European statesman has breathed new hopes and new goals into the European project and brought it from the 20th to the 21st century. [7]
The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organisation created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957, aiming to foster economic integration among its member states. It was subsequently renamed the European Community (EC) upon becoming integrated into the first pillar of the newly formed European Union (EU) in 1993. In the popular language, the singular European Community was sometimes inaccurately used in the wider sense of the plural European Communities, in spite of the latter designation covering all the three constituent entities of the first pillar. The EEC was also known as the European Common Market (ECM) in the English-speaking countries, and sometimes referred to as the European Community even before it was officially renamed as such in 1993. In 2009, the EC formally ceased to exist and its institutions were directly absorbed by the EU. This made the Union the formal successor institution of the Community.
The Treaty on European Union, commonly known as the Maastricht Treaty, is the foundation treaty of the European Union (EU). Concluded in 1992 between the then-twelve member states of the European Communities, it announced "a new stage in the process of European integration" chiefly in provisions for a shared European citizenship, for the eventual introduction of a single currency, and for common foreign and security policies, and a number of changes to the European institutions and their decision taking procedures, not least a strengthening of the powers of the European Parliament and more majority voting on the Council of Ministers. Although these were seen by many to presage a "federal Europe", key areas remained inter-governmental with national governments collectively taking key decisions. This constitutional debate continued through the negotiation of subsequent treaties, culminating in the 2007 Treaty of Lisbon.
The European Union is a geo-political entity, created in 1993, covering a large portion of the European continent. It is founded upon numerous treaties and has undergone expansions and secessions that have taken it from six member states to 27, a majority of the states in Europe.
The Treaty of Rome, or EEC Treaty, brought about the creation of the European Economic Community (EEC), the best known of the European Communities (EC). The treaty was signed on 25 March 1957 by Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany, and it came into force on 1 January 1958. Originally the "Treaty establishing the European Economic Community", and now continuing under the name "Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union", it remains one of the two most important treaties in what is now the European Union (EU).
Jacques Lucien Jean Delors was a French politician who served as the eighth president of the European Commission from 1985 to 1995. Delors played a key role in the creation of the single market, the euro and the modern European Union.
Walter Hallstein was a German academic, diplomat and statesman who was the first president of the Commission of the European Economic Community and one of the founding fathers of the European Union.
Jean Omer Marie Gabriel Monnet was a French civil servant, entrepreneur, diplomat, financier, and administrator. An influential supporter of European unity, he is considered one of the founding fathers of the European Union.
The Charlemagne Prize is a prize awarded for work done in the service of European unification. It has been awarded since 1950 by the German city of Aachen. It commemorates Charlemagne, ruler of the Frankish Empire and founder of what became the Holy Roman Empire, who was the first to unify Western Europe following the Fall of the Western Roman Empire. Traditionally the award is given to the recipient on Ascension Day in a ceremony in the Aachen Town Hall. In April 2008, the organisers of the Charlemagne Prize and the European Parliament jointly created a new European Charlemagne Youth Prize, which recognises contributions by young people towards the process of European integration. Patrons of the foundation are King Philippe of Belgium, King Felipe VI of Spain, and Henri, the Grand Duke of Luxembourg.
Jean-Baptiste Nicolas Robert Schuman was a Luxembourg-born French statesman. Schuman was a Christian democratic political thinker and activist. Twice Prime Minister of France, a reformist Minister of Finance and a Foreign Minister, he was instrumental in building postwar European and trans-Atlantic institutions and was one of the founders of the European Communities, the Council of Europe and NATO. The 1964–1965 academic year at the College of Europe was named in his honour. In 2021, Schuman was declared venerable by Pope Francis in recognition of his acting on Christian principles.
The European Communities (EC) were three international organizations that were governed by the same set of institutions. These were the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), the European Atomic Energy Community, and the European Economic Community (EEC), the last of which was renamed the European Community (EC) in 1993 by the Maastricht Treaty establishing the European Union. The European Union was established at that time more as a concept rather than an entity, while the Communities remained the actual subjects of international law impersonating the rather abstract Union, becoming at the same time its first pillar. In popular language, however, the singular European Community was sometimes used interchangeably with the plural phrase, in the sense of referring to all three entities.
The Single European Act (SEA) was the first major revision of the 1957 Treaty of Rome. The Act set the European Community an objective of establishing a single market by 31 December 1992, and a forerunner of the European Union's Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) it helped codify European Political Co-operation. The amending treaty was signed at Luxembourg City on 17 February 1986 and at The Hague on 28 February 1986. It came into effect on 1 July 1987, under the Delors Commission.
A supranational union is a type of international organization and political union that is empowered to directly exercise some of the powers and functions otherwise reserved to states. A supranational organization involves a greater transfer of or limitation of state sovereignty than other kinds of international organizations.
The Delors Commission was the administration of Jacques Delors, the eighth President of the European Commission. Delors presided over the European Commission for three terms. The first term lasted from 1985 to 1988, the second until 1992 and the final one until 1994, making Delors the longest serving president, and his Commission is also seen as the most successful at advancing European integration. It was the only Commission to serve three times, and Delors served five two-year terms. The third Commission was the first Commission of the European Union, the Maastricht Treaty having come into force in 1993.
Between 1973 and 1993 the European Communities saw the first enlargement of the Communities. On 1 January 1973, Denmark, Ireland, and the United Kingdom became the first countries to join the Communities. The détente allowed initiation of the reunification of the continent through establishing the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe. Greece was the next to join EC on 1 January 1981, followed by Spain and Portugal joining on 1 January 1986, while Turkey has initiated the procedure in 1987. Upon the fall of the Iron Curtain, the CSCE was transformed in 1990 into Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the Communities enlarged for a fourth time through the German reunification, while other former communist European countries stated their firm commitment to join, prompting formulation of the Copenhagen criteria. This period was, however, also the one which witnessed the first voluntary exit from the Communities, namely the one of Greenland in 1985. The integration progressed under the Delors Commission resulting in the creation of the European Union in 1993.
This is a timeline of European Union history and its previous development.
The founding fathers of the European Union are men who are considered to be major contributors to European unity and the development of what is now the European Union. The number and list of the founding fathers of the EU varies depending on the source. In a publication from 2013 the European Union listed 11 men. All but one were from the Inner Six of the European Union.
The economic and monetary union (EMU) of the European Union is a group of policies aimed at converging the economies of member states of the European Union at three stages.
The European act of state in honour of Helmut Kohl was an act of state to honour former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl following his death, and took place at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France on 1 July 2017 from 11 AM to 1 PM. It was announced by the European Commission on 18 June 2017, and was the first European act of state in the history of the European Union. It was co-organised by the European Commission, the European Parliament and the European Council.
Helmut Kohl, the former Chancellor of Germany, died on the morning of Friday, 16 June 2017 in the Oggersheim district of Ludwigshafen, his home town, aged 87. In office from 1982 to 1998, he is widely regarded as the "father of the German reunification" and as a principal architect of the Maastricht Treaty which established the European Union (EU) and the euro currency. In 1998 he became the second person to be named an Honorary Citizen of Europe. Following his death, he was lauded by world leaders as "the greatest European leader of the second half of the 20th century" and was honoured with an unprecedented European Act of State in his honour in Strasbourg, France, attended by the leaders of the EU's nations and other current and former world leaders. Subsequently, a Catholic requiem mass was celebrated in the Speyer Cathedral in Speyer, Germany, after which Kohl was interred in the nearby Old Cemetery.
The Delors Committee, formally known as the Committee for the Study of Economic and Monetary Union, was an ad hoc committee chaired by European Commission President Jacques Delors in 1988–1989. It was set up in June 1988 upon a mandate from the European Council to examine and propose concrete stages leading to European Economic and Monetary Union; its report, commonly known as the Delors Report, was published in April 1989.
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