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Jacques Louis Santer (; born 18 May 1937) is a Luxembourgish politician who served as president of the European Commission from 1995 to 1999 before resigning amidst allegations of corruption. He served as the finance minister of Luxembourg from 1979 until 1989, and as prime minister of Luxembourg from 1984 to 1995, as a member of the Christian Social People's Party (CSV), which was the leading party in the Luxembourgish government between 1979 and 2013. As prime minister of Luxembourg, he also led the negotiations on the Single European Act, which effectively set aside the 20-year-old Luxembourg compromise.
After the general election of 1984, Werner retired as prime minister and from political life in general, and Santer became the new prime minister. He and the CSV now formed a new coalition with the Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party (LSAP), which had come out of the elections as the second-largest party in the legislature, beating the Democratic Party into third place; the CSV remained the largest party. This CSV/LSAP coalition was to last until 1999.
On 10 November 1990 an article appeared in the Zeitung vum Lëtzebuerger Vollek, the title of which translated into "Five years of state secret – The bombing NATO terror commando", which caused a parliamentary inquiry in which Santer was forced to reveal the existence of a Operation Gladio in Luxembourg and being politically responsible to call for its dissolution. The organisation was active since its creation by the then prime minister Pierre Werner in 1959 and was organised by the secret service of Luxembourg, the Service de Renseignement de l'Etat (SREL) and coordinated by the NATO. On 17 December 1990 he told the constitutional committee the organisation had never more than 12 members and was only foreseen to handle intelligence operations, as well as escape and evasion manoeuvers. There were weapons caches established in 1973, but direct access would not have been granted, according to Santer. On 14 October 1990, the remaining members of the organisation were informed and requested to return their radio communication equipment.
In the same year, 1995, Santer became the first recipient of the Vision for Europe Award.
Allegations of corruption concerning individual EU commissioners led to an investigation into administrative failings (incompetence and malpractice) by a so-called Committee of Independent Experts. Despite clearing most commissioners, the report stated that they had not found a single person showing the slightest sense of responsibility. Because the implicated commissioners refused to resign and the president of the European Commission did not have the power to dismiss individual commissioners, Santer and his entire commission resigned on 15 March 1999, the very day of the report's publication. As the Commission would only have lasted for half a year from then, he was replaced by Vice-President Manuel Marín on an interim basis.
He also was on General Mediterranean Holdings' board, a financial holding owned by Anglo-Iraqi Nadhmi Auchi.
In January 2012, Santer was appointed to head the board of the Special Purpose Investment Vehicle (SPIV), which was designed to boost the firepower of the European Financial Stability Facility, the eurozone rescue fund.
In May 2013, Santer became an Honorary Member of SME Europe, the official pro-business organisation of the European People's Party.
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