Brussels, 29/06/2012 (Agence Europe) - The appointment of a new head of the Eurogroup has been postponed and will probably be made next week or the week after, said the president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, after the summit in Brussels on Friday 29 June. Under certain conditions, Jean-Claude Juncker is prepared to stand in for six months.
The current head of the Eurogroup, Luxembourg's prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker, appointed in 2005 and whose term of office ends on 17 July 2012, is expected by a number of sources to be reappointed either temporarily or for a new term of office. The decision was expected on Friday, but had to be postponed because of the departure of the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, who had an important meeting with the German parliament in Berlin, said Herman Van Rompuy, and all 17 eurozone members are needed to take the decision. Van Rompuy said it was highly likely that it will be possible to take the decision in early July. Juncker told a few reporters that he agreed with extending his term of office for six months but will not agree to this until the Luxembourg candidate for the ECB Executive Board, Yves Mersch, has been appointed to the ECB.
Agreement was not reached on any successor to Juncker. France and other countries refused to go along with the idea of appointing Germany's finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, to the Eurogroup job. France wants Juncker to continue in the job, although he initially said he wanted to retire.
The new head of the Eurogroup is one of a series of powerful jobs to be filled within the eurozone, including a position on the ECB Executive Board. Yves Mersch is expected to receive this. The head of the new eurozone bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), expected to be established in July, also needs to be found. Wolfgang Schäuble will not be given the Eurogroup job, but another German, Klaus Regling, who currently heads the temporary bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Facility, may well take over at the ESM. Things are still up for grabs, however. (LC/transl.fl)