Jacques Poos

Jacques Poos
Poos in 1999
Member of the European Parliament
In office 20 July 1999 – 5 May 2004 Serving with Colette Flesch, Robert Goebbels, Astrid Lulling, Jacques Santer and Claude Turmes
Constituency	Luxembourg
Deputy Prime Minister of Luxembourg
In office 20 July 1984 – 7 August 1999
Prime Minister	Jacques Santer Jean-Claude Juncker
Preceded by	Colette Flesch
Succeeded by	Lydie Polfer
Minister for Finances
In office 21 July 1976 – 16 July 1979
Prime Minister	Gaston Thorn
Preceded by	Raymond Vouel
Succeeded by	Jacques Santer
Personal details
Born	Jacques François Poos (1935-06-03)3 June 1935 Luxembourg
Died	19 February 2022(2022-02-19) (aged 86)
Political party	Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party
Other political affiliations	Party of European Socialists
Alma mater	University of Lausanne

Jacques François Poos (3 June 1935 – 19 February 2022) was a Luxembourgish politician from the Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party (LSAP).

Early life and education

Born in 1935, in Luxembourg, Poos was a trained economist and became a doctor of economics in 1961, when he graduated from the University of Lausanne.

Career in politics

Poos and Jean-Claude Juncker in 1997

Poos was a long-time member of the Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party. Between 1964 and 1976, he was director and editor in Chief of the daily newspaper Tageblatt in Esch-sur-Alzette. In the same period he also became a member of the town council of Esch-sur-Alzette.

In July 1976, he was appointed Minister of Finance. As the foreign minister of Luxembourg he held Presidency of the Council of the European Union for three half-year terms in 1985, 1991 and 1997. He was Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Development, first in Jacques Santer's (from 1984 to 1995), then in Jean-Claude Junckers's cabinets (from 1995 to 1999).

In 1991, he was one of the negotiators of the Brioni Agreement that ended the Ten-Day War in Slovenia. In May of that year, upon disembarking from an airplane en route to beginning negotiations, he declared, "The hour of Europe has dawned."

European Parliament

In 1999, Poos left the government and was elected as a Member of European Parliament, where he sat on the Committee for Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security and Defence Policy, and was the draftsman for Cyprus' accession into the EU. In 2003, he received an honorary doctor of law degree from Panteion University of Athens, Greece.

Retirement and death

In 2004, Poos retired from political life, but remained active as non-executive director in the boards of different national and international institutions and companies. He died on 19 February 2022, at the age of 86.

See also

• Santer-Poos Ministry I
• Santer-Poos Ministry II
• Santer-Poos Ministry III
• Juncker-Poos Ministry (1995-1999)

External links

• Interview with Jacques F. Poos Archived 23 October 2006 at the Wayback Machine
• Interview with Jacques F. Poos
• Video interviews with Jacques F. Poos
• Dr. Jacques F. Poos - Global Foreign Policy Today, an unconventional approach