The Portuguese finance minister, Mario Centeno, will officially start his two-and-a half-year term as chair of the Eurogroup, the informal meeting of the Eurozone finance ministers, this Saturday 13 January.
He takes over from the former Dutch finance minister, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who had held this post since 2013 (see EUROPE 10768). Readers may recall that Centeno was selected by his peers at the last Eurogroup meeting on 4 December 2017, in a vote that pitted him against his counterparts from Luxembourg, Pierre Gramegna, Slovakia, Peter Kazimir, and Latvia, Dana Reizniece-Ozola (see EUROPE 11918).
At the official handover ceremony, which was held at the Portuguese Embassy in Paris on Friday 12 January, Centeno took pains to thank his predecessor for his strong leadership of the Eurogroup, over a period when the Eurozone was under pressure. He also listed a number of challenges that await him during his term in office, such as the deepening of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU).
On 6 December of last year, the European Commission presented an ambitious package of proposals aiming to improve the governance of the Eurozone and make it more democratic (see EUROPE 11920).
For his part, Dijsselbloem hailed the fact that the Eurozone has returned to economic health, stressing a return to growth in all states that have adopted the single currency (see EUROPE 11901), a drop in unemployment and improved state of public finances. He also wished Centeno the very best in his new role.
Centeno will chair his first meeting of the Eurozone finance ministers on 22 January, a meeting that may also mark the end of the third monitoring mission of the third Greek bailout plan (see EUROPE 11937). (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)