At the end of last year, the French politician Jacques Delors died at the age of 98. Delors is best remembered for his time as president of the European Commission from the mid 1980s to the mid 1990s. During that time, the European Community became the European Union. The Delors Commission also laid the groundwork for the single currency through the Maastricht Treaty. One of the main ideas associated with Delors was the concept of a “social Europe.”

Our guest today is Aurelie Dianara. She’s a research fellow at the University of Évry in Paris. Her book Social Europe, the Road not Taken: The Left and European Integration in the Long 1970s was published in 2022.

As Aurelie explains, the idea of “social Europe” originated in the crisis of global capitalism during the 1970s. When it was taken up by Delors and his Commission, it lost its radical connotations and eventually became an alibi for the neoliberal framework of the Eurozone.

Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.