Graf Jean Monnet

Jean Omer Marie Gabriel Monnet was a French political economist and diplomat. An influential supporter of European unity, he is considered as one of the founding fathers of the European Union. Jean Monnet has been called "The Father of Europe" by those who see his innovative and pioneering efforts in the 1950s as the key to establishing the European Coal and Steel Community, the predecessor of today's European Union. Never elected to public office, Monnet worked behind the scenes of American and European governments as a well-connected pragmatic internationalist. He was named patron of the 1980–1981 academic year at the College of Europe, in honour of his accomplishments.
Monnet was born in Cognac, a commune in the department of Charente in France, into a family of cognac merchants. According to Jacques-René Rabier, in Monnet's family, coexisted laic and republican ethics as well as a strong Catholic tradition. His mother was deeply religious and his sister Marie-Louise was a founder of the French branch of Action Catholique, to which Monnet contributed financially, she would later introduce her brother to Pope Paul VI.

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