Dr. Jacques F. Poos
Former Deputy Prime Minister of Luxembourg; Minister of Foreign Affairs
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Biography
Born in 1953 in Luxembourg Dr. Jacques F. Poos is a trained economist and became a doctor of economics in 1961, when he graduated from the University of Lausanne. In 2003 he received an honorary doctor of law degree from Panteion University of Athens, Greece. Between 1964 andn 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.
Dr. Poos moved into national politics in 1974 when he was first elected to Luxembourg parliament as a member of the Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party. In July 1976 he was appointed as Minister of Finance. From June 1984 until July 1999, throughout three legislative periods, from June 1984, he held office as member of the Government.
He was Deputy-Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Development, first in Jacques Santer’s (from 1984 to 1996), then in Jean-Claude Junckers’s cabinets (from 1986 to 1999). 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.
In 1999 Dr. 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 Defense Policy, and was the draftsman for Cyprus’ accession into the EU. In 2004 he retired from political life, but he remains active as non-executive director in the boards of different national and international institutions and companies.
