Jeroen Dijsselbloem, whose position as finance minister is not expected to be renewed when the new Dutch government is formed, has pledged to go along with whatever his peers decide as to whether he is to remain the President of the Eurogroup.
It will take some time until the new government in the Netherlands can be formed, but his term as finance minister “will most likely come to an end”, Dijsselbloem acknowledged after the meeting of the Eurozone finance ministers on Monday 20 March.
As long as he is a serving minister, the Dutchman will remain President of the Eurogroup. Once the Dutch government is in place by the summer, a decision of the Nineteen will be required, to decide either to keep him in position until the end of his mandate in January 2018, or to appoint his successor. If he were to stay in the job, this would for the first time create a situation in which the President of the Eurogroup is not a serving national minister.
Will there be any time lag between the end of his ministerial office and that of his position at the head of the Eurogroup? “I don't know; it is not for me to say what happens in this unprecedented situation and who will be the next chair of the Eurogroup”, Dijsselbloem said, adding that he planned to hold face-to-face talks with each of the ministers around the table.
In the Dutch general elections, Dijsselbloem's Labour party, PvdA, suffered an unprecedented setback (see EUROPE 11747). (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)