Former European Commission President Jacques Delors, the politician considered the father of the European Union, has died aged 98, his daughter Martine Aubry told media on Wednesday.

Delors served as president of the European Commission for three terms, longer than any other holder of the office – from January 1985 until 1995.

Also a former French government minister, Delors was a passionate advocate of postwar European integration and credited as the driving force behind the introduction of the euro, the EU’s single currency, and the creation of the bloc’s single market, The Guardian reported.

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

“I have no regrets,” he said about that decision later. “But I am not saying I was right.”

“Statesman of French destiny. Inexhaustible craftsman of our Europe. Fighter for human justice,” said French President Emmanuel Macron.

Delors died in his sleep at his Paris home on Wednesday, his family said.