Jean-François Deniau

Jean-François Deniau (31 October 1928 – 24 January 2007) was a French politician, diplomat, essayist and novelist. Until 1998, he was a member of the Union for French Democracy (UDF).

In 1958, he became the director of Foreign Relations for the European Commission. He was the author of the foreword of the Treaty of Rome. In 1963, he was named French ambassador to Mauritania and in 1967 he was appointed as one of the French European Commissioners, as a member of the Rey Commission, in 1970 followed by his membership of the Malfatti Commission. He was responsible for the accession negotiations of Great Britain, the Republic of Ireland, Denmark and Norway, and for assistance to developing countries.

In 1973, he entered the government of Pierre Messmer as Secretary of State for Coopération, and was then named Secretary of State to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in the government formed by Jacques Chirac after the election of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing to the presidency of the French Republic in 1974. In 1976, J.F. Deniau became France's ambassador to Madrid, on the request of the new king Juan Carlos, with whom he had begun a friendship during regattas. Deniau would play an active advisory role to the king and the government during Spain's democratic transition following the death of general Franco.