Valery Giscard d’Estaing

France mourns ‘great European’ Giscard after Covid death
  • Giscard d’Estaing placed Paris at the heart of Europe in a post-war partnership with Germany and paved the way for the creation of the G7 group of world powers
  • He helped the push toward a monetary union in cooperation with German chancellor Helmut Schmidt, launching a European exchange rate system that was a precursor to the euro