Jacques Delors, a former head of the EU Commission and key figure in the creation of the euro currency, has died, his daughter Martine Aubry told AFP on Wednesday.

Delors, who was 98, died in his sleep in his Paris home on Wednesday, she said.

Delors, a French socialist former finance minister and MEP, became the president of the European Commission in January 1985. During his 10-year presidency he laid the groundwork for the introduction of a single market within the European Community.

He also headed the Committee for the Study of Economic and Monetary Union, widely known as the Delors Committee, that in early 1989 proposed a monetary union to create a new currency, the euro, to replace individual national currencies.  

Delors was president of the Commission when Malta applied for membership of the European Union in 1990. In 1992 he told Liberation in an interview: 'Let us not forget that in the year 2000 we shall be more than 12 (members of the EU) maybe a little more than 20. There is a country one forgets, but which is very important as a symbol, Malta. We must not displace Europe too much to the north while forgetting the south since we could risk losing our sensitivity to the Mediterranean world, which is our world, but which at present has dangers for the future of all of us."

European Parliament president Roberta Metsola paid tribute to Delors in a tweet saying the EU had lost 'a giant.'

"He worked tirelessly, as President of the EU Commission and member of the European Parliament for a united Europe. Generations of Europeans will continue to benefit from his legacy," she said.

EU Council chief Charles Michel paid tribute to Jacques Delors.

"Jacques Delors led the transformation of the European Economic Community towards a true Union... A great Frenchman and a great European, he went down in history as one of the builders of our Europe," he said on social media.

Current European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said Delors had "shaped entire generations of Europeans, including mine" and was "a visionary who made our Europe stronger".

European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde highlighted Delors's role for the single European market and "the path he laid out towards our single currency, the euro".

Europe, she said, "has lost a true statesman".