European Council | Eurogroup presidency: three ministers put forward their candidacies

Three ministers have put forward their candidacy to become president of the Eurogroup:

• Carlos Cuerpo, Minister for Economy, Trade and Business of Spain
• Paschal Donohoe, Minister for Finance of Ireland
• Rimantas Šadžius, Minister for Finance of Lithuania

The election of the new president will take place at the next meeting of the Eurogroup on 7 July. The president is elected by a simple majority of the Eurogroup ministers, in line with the Treaty’s Protocol 14 on the Eurogroup.

If none of the candidates receives at least 11 of the 20 votes by the Eurogroup ministers at the end of the first voting round, each candidate will be informed individually of the number of votes that he has received. Candidates will then have the opportunity to withdraw their application. Voting will take place until a simple majority is reached on one of the candidates.

The winner will be announced to the ministers at the end of the vote and presented at the Eurogroup press conference at the end of the meeting.

Any minister with responsibility for finance from a euro area member state may be elected President of the Eurogroup. The candidate must be a sitting member of the Eurogroup at the time of the election. The President is elected for a term of two and a half years, and the mandate may be renewed.

The Eurogroup is an informal body created in 1997 in which the ministers from the euro area member states discuss matters relating to their countries’ common responsibilities related to the euro. Its main task is to ensure close coordination of economic policies among the euro area member states. It also aims to promote conditions for stronger economic growth and is responsible for preparing the Euro Summit meetings and for their follow-up. It usually meets once a month, on the eve of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council meeting.

The first Eurogroup meeting took place on 4 June 1998 in Luxembourg. The first President of the Eurogroup was Jean-Claude Juncker. He was succeeded by Jeroen Dijsselbloem, Mário Centeno and Paschal Donohoe, who was elected President of the Eurogroup for the first time on 9 July 2020.

Compliments of the European Council