Mário Centeno, is to become the next president of the Eurogroup of finance ministers, taking over the job from Jeroen Dijsselbloem in January, 2018.
The election of Portugal’s current finance minister is prestigous and will delight Portugal's socialist administration while improving the country’s international standing after António Guterres was elected as the Secretary-General of the United Nations in October 2016.
Centeno, born on December 9th 1966, in Olhão and who spend much of his childhood in Vila Real de Santo António, saw off strong final candidates from Latvia, Luxembourg and Slovakia, with a majority of Eurozone finance ministers voting for this quietly effective operator, but only after a second round of voting as there was no clear majority in round one.
Dutch former Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem is to leave office after a five year term. Centeno will occupy the post for a 2.5 year period which can be extended.
This is the first time the influential Eurogroup has been chaired by a minister from a southern European country, let alone a country that has been in receipt of a bail-out loan but Centeno’s Harvard credentials and a successful period in Portuguese politics have won the confidence of European colleagues.
A couple of unenviable tasks face the Eurogroup and will act as Centeno's first major challenges. Firstly, Greece nears the end of its €86 billion bailout programme in the Summer of 2018 with Centeno assuming responsibility of overseeing the exit while dealing at the same time with the International Monetary Fund.
Secondly, Centeno will be developing a strategy for the reform of the Eurozone’s regulatory model including reviewing the Union's bailout strategy and the potential creation of a new budget system for the Eurozone bloc countries.
Former Portuguese Prime Minister and former President of the European Commission, Durão Barroso, said that we can learn a lesson from the election of Centeno, that "by discussing, negotiating and being present we can transform a country for the better."
"Congratulations to the Minister, the Government deserves congratulations, Portugal deserves congratulations," said Barroso, "As the patriots that we are, we like to see the country win and not lose; with an image of credibility and not of failure or defeat. I therefore very much welcome this election and I now hope that the Minister of Finance will put his efforts at the service of a vision of Europe that must combine solidarity with responsibility.”
Comments
Don't be lazy. Google it.
Don't understand any of your comment, but what is visegrad group ??
The northern EU no longer at all keen on propping up the southern EU states Centeno will be no more than a puppet for the north. All of his comments will be written beforehand by Berlin and Amsterdam but he will be seen as a Graeco-Roman - one of us, to the south. Picking any of the other more aggressively developing EU states, particularly if from Eastern Europe, risked complications with the Visegrad Group Agenda.