The European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Pierre Moscovici, suggests that the finance ministers of the Eurozone could, with no treaty change, have a President of the Eurogroup who would not necessarily also need to be a serving minister.
"I am in favour of the idea that the President of the Eurogroup would eventually be a finance minister of the Eurozone who would also be a member of the European Commission", he told the press on Tuesday 31 January. "But to do that, there would have to be a change of treaty", he added. "If the finance ministers decided that the President did not have to be a serving finance minister and not a Commissioner, this is not impossible under the current rules, and so they could do this", he explained, adding that this would be a matter for the internal rules of the informal body that is Eurogroup.
With Dutch elections to take place in March, speculation has been rife in the international press for several days about the future of Jeroen Dijsselbloem, currently the Dutch finance minister and President of the Eurogroup. The Dutchman does not appear too worried about his future. When asked about this last week, he said that it was not an issue as it was his intention to remain finance minister of the Netherlands after the general elections in his country, and therefore also President of the Eurogroup.
"He's an excellent President, he knows all of the dossiers inside out, he chairs meetings well, he's decisive and he knows how to summarise issues", Moscovici said of the Dutchman. Additionally, the Christian Democrat family of the EPP currently holds three senior European offices: the Presidencies of the European Commission, the European Parliament and the European Council. Dijsselbloem is a Socialist. "It's not healthy for a single party to govern" in Europe, Moscovici explained, when asked about the broader balance in the representation of the political forces in the European institutions.
The protocol on Eurogroup to the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU goes no further than to state that the ministers of the member states whose currency is the euro shall elect a President for two and a half years, by a majority of these member states. But according to information we have received, the working methods of the Eurogroup stipulate that candidates for the post of President must hold the national post of finance minister. (Original version in French by Élodie Lamer)