Brussels, 21/01/2013 (Agence Europe) - Unless there is some last minute turnaround, Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem will begin a two-and-a-half year term of office on Tuesday at the helm of the Eurogroup, replacing Jean-Claude Juncker of Luxembourg. Arriving in Brussels on Monday for a Eurogroup meeting, Dijsselbloem said he had two priorities - working to boost growth and employment and restoring confidence in the single currency. Dijsselbloem, a Socialist, is 46 years old and has been finance minister for three months, his astonishing rise to fame owing much to being in the right place at the right time.
French Economy Minister Pierre Moscovici said there was only one candidate to take over the chairmanship of the Eurogroup and, therefore, he was the best one. Anxious to ensure the Eurogroup shows as much concern to growth as budget consolidation, however, France called for a debate, in which Dijsselbloem will present his vision of the future of the eurozone. Moscovici said that Juncker's successor had to be up to the task and he had asked Dijsselbloem, who is nice man, to explain how he would chair the Eurogroup and his ideas on a range of big issues. Moscovici said there would be an open discussion at the Eurogroup meeting that should lead to consensus on his appointment, but it was crucial to know exactly how he envisaged the future of the eurozone, the full eurozone, and above all, in Moscovici's view, the balance between policies for growth and the need for budget consolidation. Deficits have to be cut, but we can't put up with Europe entering a recessionary spiral, he added. Moscovici said Juncker had known how to strike a good balance between countries in the north and the south of Europe, between deficit reduction and growth and between the French and German vision of the eurozone and he expected Dijsselbloem to be up to the job of following in his footsteps.
Everything has an end, said Juncker, adding that only sausages have two ends, relieved to hand on the baton after eight years at the head of the eurozone finance ministers. (MB/transl.fl)