Portuguese Finance Minister Mario Centeno was picked as the new head of the Eurogroup on Monday, with the key job of chaperoning much needed reforms across the single currency bloc. The little known former central banker will replace outgoing Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem in January, and beat out his counterparts from Luxembourg, Slovakia and Latvia to win one of Europe's most coveted jobs.
"Centeno, the minister for finance of Portugal, has been elected as the new Eurogroup president," the European Council of ministers said in a tweet after the vote. Centeno was long the favourite for the post and his victory came after two rounds of voting at a closed door session of the 19 Eurogroup ministers in Brussels. The winning candidate had to secure 10 votes to win.
His nomination marks a big turnaround for Portugal since the worst of the debt crisis in which Lisbon was bailed out and forced to push through painful reforms to save its economy. The job is one of the most strategic in the European Union, tasked with guiding economic policy in the face of clashing opinions and resistance, most notably by austerity-pushing Germany, the bloc's most powerful member.
The eurozone is currently in an economic recovery, but Centeno will fast come to the front lines if the eurozone debt crisis should return, with the Eurogroup chief tasked with spearheading negotiations for bailouts and rescues.
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