How EU Finance Chiefs Squandered Their Influence With Bickering
- Finance ministers have been largely sidelined during pandemic
- New Eurogroup president will be tasked with reviving its role
EU finance chiefs Pierre Gramegna, left, Nadia Calvino, center, and Paschal Donohoe.
Photographer: Javier Soriano/AFP via Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
Jeroen Dijsselbloem had been running the euro-area finance meetings for less than three months in 2013 when he stepped, bleary-eyed onto the stage at 4 a.m. to tell Cypriot savers they would have to help shoulder the cost of saving their country’s banking system.
With the single currency close to implosion at several points during the Dutchman’s tenure, traders around the world would soon get used to tuning in as he helped to thrash out a series of critical rescue packages in the meetings of Eurozone finance ministers, known as the Eurogroup.