Jean Monnet

Jean Monnet

Jean Omer Marie Gabriel Monnet (9 November 1888 – 16 March 1979) was a French political economist and diplomat. He is regarded by many as a chief architect of European unity and is regarded as one of the founding fathers of the European Union. Never elected to public office, Monnet worked behind the scenes of American and European governments as a well-connected pragmatic internationalist. The 1980–1981 academic year at the College of Europe was named in his honour.