Eurogroup

 ( Council Of The European Union ) 

To begin with, the chair of the Eurogroup mirrored that of the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union, except where the Council presidency was held by a non-eurozone country, in which case the chair was held by the next eurozone country that would hold the Council presidency. In 2004 the ministers decided to elect a president and in 2008, the group held a summit of heads of state and government, rather than Ministers of Finance, for the first time. This became known as the Euro summit and has held meetings irregularly during the 2008 financial crisis.

Since the beginning of the monetary union, its role has grown in regards to the euro's economic governance. The fact the group meets just before the Ecofin council means it can pre-approve all Ecofin's decisions on eurozone affairs.Schwarzer, Daniela (24 November 2006) Institutionalisation through the back door , Eurozone Watch In 2009 the Treaty of Lisbon formalised the group and its president.

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 to be the 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 and Juncker was confirmed for another term.Willis, Andrew (3 December 2009) Luxembourg leader set to extend euro zone reign, EU Observer. The presidency has helped strengthen the group, since before Juncker's appointment the Eurogroup was only present at meetings in the European Parliament. Since the position of President of the Eurogroup was created, the president has attended the European Parliament Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs every six months.

After his reappointment as President of the Eurogroup in January 2010, Juncker emphasised the need to broaden the scope of the Eurogroup's business. In particular in terms of co-ordinating economic policies and representation. Juncker proposed creating a small secretariat consisting of four to five civil servants to prepare the group's meetings. However, although France and Spain support such plans, Germany fears that strengthening the group might undermine the independence of the European Central Bank.Willis, Andrew (19 January 2010) Juncker wants more eurozone activism, EU Observer In June 2012, the Estonian minister of finance Jürgen Ligi was being considered as a possible successor for Juncker. In January 2013, Juncker however hinted that his likely successor would be Jeroen Dijsselbloem of the Netherlands, who was appointed second president of the Eurogroup on 21 January 2013. On 13 July 2015, Dijsselbloem was reelected.

On 9 July 2020, Paschal Donohoe of Ireland was elected to be the fourth President of the Eurogroup taking office on 13 July 2020. On 5 December 2022, Donohoe was re-elected, with his second term beginning on 13 January 2023. On 7 July 2025, Donohoe was elected for a third term that started on 13 July 2025.

File:Jean-Claude Juncker 2012-06-27.JPG|Jean-Claude Juncker
(2005–2013)
File:Informal Meeting of EU Finance Ministers (26508744801).jpg|Jeroen Dijsselbloem
(2013–2018)
File:2018 Finanzminister Löger bei Eurogruppe und ECOFIN (Mário Centeno).jpg|Mário Centeno
(2018–2020)
File:Paschal Donohoe TD.jpg|Paschal Donohoe
(2020–present)

Observers

• President of the European Central Bank: Christine Lagarde (since 1 November 2019)
• European Commission: Valdis Dombrovskis (since 1 December 2019)
• Managing Director of the European Stability Mechanism: Pierre Gramegna (since 1 December 2022)

Furthermore, the treaty amended the Council of the EU's rules so that when the full Ecofin council votes on matters only affecting the eurozone, only those states using the euro (the Eurogroup countries) are permitted to vote on it.

This vastly informal nature has led to a number of controversies, criticisms and debates on the governance of the monetary union.

In 2017, the Commissioner Pierre Moscovici described the Eurogroup as "a pale imitation of a democratic body." and former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis vocally denounced its "outrageous opacity". The non-transparency of the Eurogroup was a significant factor in the formation of the DiEM25 movement to "re-democratize Europe", to which Varoufakis belongs. NGO Transparency International has also repeatedly called for an overhaul of the governance of the Eurogroup. The European Ombudsman has even opened a case on the matter, demanding more transparency.

Among all those critics, here are concrete examples of democratic shortcomings of the Eurogroup:

• the Eurogroup does not publish minutes neither agenda documents from its meetings and its proceedings are vastly informal
• Conflict of interest of the chair of the Eurogroup who both represents his or her own governments and the Eurogroup as a whole;
• Domination by a restricted number of countries and/or the Troika
• Absence of accountability towards the European Parliament

This government would come in the form of a regular meeting of the eurozone heads of state and government (similar to the European Council) rather than simply the finance ministers which happens with the current Eurogroup. Sarkozy stated that "only heads of state and government have the necessary democratic legitimacy" for the role. This idea was based on the meeting of eurozone leaders in 2008 who met to agree a co-ordinated eurozone response to the banking crisis. Germany rejects idea of eurozone 'economic government': report, EU Business (21 October 2008)

This is in contrast to an early proposal from former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt who saw the European Commission taking a leading role in a new economic government, something that would be opposed by the less Federal Europe states. An economic government for the eurozone? PDF, Federal Union Sarkozy's proposal was opposed by Eurogroup chair Jean-Claude Juncker who did not think Europe was ripe for such a large step at the time and opposition from Germany killed off the proposal.Willis, Andrew (15 June 2010) Merkel: Spain can access aid if needed, EU Observer Merkel approved of the idea of an economic government, but for the whole of the EU, not just the eurozone as doing so could split the EU and relegate non-eurozone states to second class members. In his 2011 State of the Union address, Commission President José Manuel Barroso opposed the Franco-German intergovernmental plan, stating that community institutions should perform that role.

Commissioner Pierre Moscovici argued such role would bring "more democratic legitimacy" and "more efficiency" to European politics. In his view, it is a question of merging the powers of Commissioner for the Economy and Finance with those of the President of the Eurogroup.

The main task of this minister would be to "represent a strong political authority protecting the economic and budgetary interests of the euro area as a whole, and not the interests of individual Member States". According to the Jacques Delors Institute,Enderlein, H. and Haas, J. (2020) What Would A European Finance Minister Do? A Proposal. Jacques Delors Institute. its competencies could be centered around the supervision of the coordination of economic and budgetary policies.

For Jean-Claude Trichet, this minister could also rely on the Eurogroup working group for the preparation and follow-up of meetings in eurozone format, and on the Economic and Financial Committee for meetings concerning all Member States. He would also have under his authority a General Secretariat of the Treasury of the euro area, whose tasks would be determined by the objectives of the budgetary union currently being set up.

This proposal was ultimately rejected in December 2017 by the Eurogroup.Guarascio, F. (2017) ‘ Eurogroup set to reject Commission plans on finance minister’, Reuters, 7 December. Available at:

Critics argued that a better solution would be the creation of a permanent role for the Eurogroup President, instead of the current rotation of national finance ministers taking the rotating Eurogroup presidency in addition to their national roles.