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Dijsselbloem insists he will be Eurogroup President until 2018

Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem said on Thursday that his term at the helm of the Eurogroup ends in 2018, and let the world in Greece and his Spanish counterpart Luis de Guindos know that he does not intent to leave earlier due to the defeat of his Labor Party in the Dutch elections.

“We have to form a new government coalition but my mandate at the head of the Eurogroup ends in January 2018,” Michel Reijns, spokesman of the Eurogroup president, quoted Dijsselbloem.

Dijsselbloem chairs the Eurogroup since January 2013, his position was renewed in July 2015. He was challenged by de Guindos who did not manage to win majority of his eurozone counterparts.

There is currently no specific provision that the chairman of the Eurogroup has to be a finance minister. theoretically, Dijsselbloem can remain as eurogroup president until his term ends.

Protocol 14 of the Lisbon Treaty (2009) simply states: “Ministers of member states of the eurozone must elect a president for two and a half years by a majority of member states.”

However, the tradition so far has been the election of a finance minister as head of the Eurogroup, initially by Jean-Claude Juncker (2009-2013) who was prime minister and finance minister of Luxembourg, and then the Dutch finance minister Dijsselbloem.

In September 2004, the Eurogroup decided it should have a semi-permanent president who would be appointed for a term of two years.

Finance Minister and then Prime Minister of Luxembourg Jean-Claude Juncker was appointed first president of the Eurogroup, mandated from 1 January 2005, until 31 December 2006, and was re-appointed for a second term in September 2006. Under the Lisbon Treaty, this system was formalised (see “legal basis” below) and Juncker was confirmed for another term.

Sources of the Spanish government refused to confirm a possible new candidacy by De Guindos, indicating that, for the moment, “Dijssebloem is the president of the Eurogroup.”

PS new eurogroup elections in 2018? most probably Schaeuble will not be around…

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19 comments

  1. Unelected people telling the whole of Europe what to do, no wonder exit is on the voters tongues

    • Why should anybody care for voters, that makes no sense, in most “democracies” the majority is held by non-voters anyway.
      It’s much more interesting what they want and not which pimps sheep, lackeys and collaborationists vote into brothel to let’em have ideological discussions about to sit left or right, as most of them are working class and are forced to pay the most for this soap.
      Exit depends always where and emergency-exit could lead to the rest-rooms but since then England voted out of the Eurogroup?
      Since most Europeans’ postings which campaign pro-Grexit are just egoistic invaders who believe their Euro makes ’em to Drachma king when retiring or wanna have a house at the sea as cheap as possible, not caring about the (former) owners.
      This is really crazy seeing how low possible rents for them are already now… What do they want? Rent a 2 room flat for 10 bux a month so they can decide spontaneously to travel every weekend and tell back home “Surprise: We are Athenians”

  2. This mentally retarded moron is the ideal president for the Eurogroup, itself a collection of 4th Reich worshippers. Why change?

  3. Depends if his party forms part of the Dutch Coaltion Government that now needs to be formed.

  4. Of course. The eurogroup is not a legal body anyway, so why should they bother about being elected? There are no rules, no minutes of the meetings, and their decisions do not have a legal form. In essence, they are state mafia organised by the German mafia — outside of the rule of law and shameless with it. Only a crook would want to be president of such an outfit, and Diesel Flower showed that he is with his fake Masters degree on his public CV.

  5. Why this light weight was elected as Eurogroup president is beyond me. He studied agricultural economics at Wageningen University in NL. So he knows a lot about economics…..in agriculture…..
    He then made it to finance minister for the Labor Party in NL previous government but soon he made it to Eurogroup president. He then came their errand boy. You would expect a bit of solidarity from a socialist but just like the labor parties everywhere they sold out on that concept. That is why his party lost the elections so big. Basically, he works for the big banks that use the Eurogroup to further their agenda and to protect their interest. Often happens to these lefties, they talk all the talk on the left but fill their pockets on the right. Salon socialists. He will get a nice cushy job somewhere after this. Somewhere at the EU/ECB or some banks as a reward for services rendered.

    • keeptalkinggreece

      he may manage the 40 Holstein cows deported from Turkey

      • It is getting more bizarre by the day. They said they don’t want the cows and will send them back. If the Dutch wouldn’t accept them back then they would slaughter them and divide the meat among their members. So they would take them anyway then….Would it be halal to eat “contaminated meat”?
        Yesterday the foreign minister of Turkey that was banned entry in NL said that soon holy wars will start in Europe. Completely bonkers.
        Anyway, cows are cool. I spent my summer holidays on a farm. Gathering them and milking them was great fun. Best is when they leave their winter stables and go wild in the meadow. In NL they organize special days for that that attract big crowds. I have never seen many cows in Greece. You more of a goat and sheep country.

    • A joke president (comes with fake degrees too from the University of Voodoo in Economics) for a joke body. Fits!
      Now, “socialists”, as they call themselves, have been discredited all over Europe, with no exception. They have become just another ruling team, with a different name and colour. Varoufakis has a very good analysis on the phenomenon.

      • They call themselves “social democrats” typically. They are neither socialist nor democratic. One might say that they are mildly authoritarian conservatives — roughly where European conservative parties were in the 1970s. That shows how far the seismic shift to the Right has gone.