Euro zone finance ministers on Monday chose Greek Kiriakos Pierrakakis as the next president of the Eurogroup. The head of the Economy and Finance of Greece took precedence over his Belgian counterpart Vincent Van Peteghem. This Thursday’s result is very symbolic: the Eurogroup is the EU body which imposed very tough budgetary conditions on Greece to grant it the three financial rescue plans it needed during the euro crisis. Today, 15 years after the first rescue, a Greek comes to chair this organization which was so important then and which has lost a lot of relevance since the moments which endangered the viability of the single currency have been overcome.
Pierrakakis is a 42-year-old Greek politician who, before occupying the Finance portfolio, was responsible for Digital Governance (2019-2023) and then Education. He has held this position since March this year and his election obviously represents more support for the country than for Pierrakakis himself. In recent years, the situation of Greek public accounts has improved considerably. For example, in 2020, in the midst of a pandemic, its public debt reached 210% of GDP; Five years later, by mid-2025, its commitments had been reduced to 151.2% of GDP. This latest data still places the Greek country as one of the most indebted countries in the developed world, surpassed only by Japan. But his improvement over this decade is enormous.
“Greece has come a long way over the last ten years. Your election today (this Thursday) as President of the Eurogroup, dear Kiarakos Pierrakakis, is a significant recognition of this progress, both for your country and for our Union,” recognized the President of the European Council, António Costa. The Portuguese was Prime Minister of Portugal, also a country saved during this crisis and which, years later, saw its Finance Minister at the time, Mario Centeno, become President of the Eurogroup (from January 2018 to July 2020).
In addition to this recognition of the progress of the country which suffered the most during the euro crisis, other elements hovered over this Thursday’s vote. One of them is Belgium’s position on using frozen Russian assets (mostly in Belgium) to provide a loan to Ukraine to secure its finances for the next two years. The Belgian government, of which Van Peteghem is deputy prime minister, rejects this movement against the majority of EU countries.
Among the tasks that Pierrakakis set out to accomplish in his new position, as shown in the letter that accompanied his application, is the promotion of the capital market. The Greek, like almost everyone who talks about looking for ways to strengthen the EU’s competitiveness, looks to former ECB President Mario Draghi and the report presented by the Italian in September 2024 to emphasize that this step is “strategic”. “The Eurogroup is the natural forum to lead this agenda.”
The battle of Pierrakakis and Van Peteghem had a fraticidal element. Both are part of political groups integrated into the European People’s Party, which means that this time the finance ministers of the European conservative family have not positioned themselves as a bloc as they did this summer to obtain the renewal of the Irishman Paschal Donohoe. The rest of the families didn’t band together to defend one or the other either.
Unlike what happened in July, where there were several demonstrations of support before arriving at decision day, this time it was not like that. Only the German Finance Minister, the Social Democrat Lars Klingbeil, indicated upon his arrival at the Council headquarters, where the Eurogroup is held, that he would support Pierrakakis.
Spanish Minister Carlos Body did not reveal his cards before the vote. “They are both very strong candidates,” he stressed. He ran for president this summer, but this time he announced he wouldn’t try again. He subordinated this decision to the objective of maintaining Spain within the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB), from which Luis de Guindos will leave in May. For this race, which will run from now until December 2027 (there are four positions to be distributed which will be replaced at different times), Corps announced that Spain would present a candidacy, without giving a name.
Donohoe was re-elected to the post this summer. He held the position for more than five years until he announced his resignation on November 18 to join the World Bank as managing director. From that moment on, the mechanisms planned to choose the successor were put in place, which was done quite quickly.
About The Author
