Who is he: As head of the Luxembourg government, Jean-Claude Juncker has aggressively promoted Luxembourg interests. In December 1996, he helped mediate an agreement between then German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and then French President Jacques Chirac regarding an economic and monetary Stability Pact for the EU. The pro-Euro press called him "the hero of Dublin."
In 2005, Jean-Claude Juncker arranged a reform of the Stability and Growth Pact. Juncker also helped revive the Lisbon Strategy. Upon the return of the CSV-LSAP government coalition in 2009, Jean-Claude Juncker again became Prime Minister, Minister of State, as well as Minister for the Treasury.
Juncker remains a most important EU bureaucrat and one relentlessly dedicated to its quasi-totalitarian vision in which a handful of socialist bureaucrats run Europe without any remedy. In 2011 Juncker made news with his comments claiming the Greeks would have to disgorge up to US$100 billion in public properties.
Background: Jean-Claude Juncker was born on December 9th, 1954 in Redange-sur-Attert. Juncker went to boarding school in Clairefontaine (Belgium) and later enrolled in the Law Faculty of the University of Strasbourg where he received a Master's degree in law in 1979.
In February 1980, Juncker took his oath as a barrister, but never practiced. Instead, Juncker entered government. In 1982, he was appointed Secretary of State for Labour and Social Security in Luxembourg. In 1984, under the banner of the Christian Social Party (CSV), Juncker was elected to Parliament for the first time.
In 1985, Juncker chaired a pan-European Social Affairs Council and the Budget Council and this task produced in him a pro-European commitment. Juncker came to believe that what has today evolved into the European Union was necessary to keep peace in Europe.
In 1989, Jean-Claude Juncker was appointed Minister of Finance, Minister of Labour for Luxembourg. In 1991, as president of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council, Jean-Claude Juncker helped birth the Maastricht Treaty; in fact, he is said to have written large parts himself.
In June 1994, Jean-Claude Juncker was re-elected to Parliament with his Minister of Finance and Minister of Labour portfolios. In 1995, Jean-Claude Juncker was appointed Prime Minister, Minister of State for Luxembourg.