Brussels, July 7, 2025 (Lusa) - Two of the three ministers running for the leadership of the Eurogroup withdrew their candidacies on Monday at the start of the meeting that will decide the new presidency, leaving only the Irish candidate, who is supported by Portugal, to stand for election.
Right at the start of the meeting that will decide the new Eurogroup president for the next two and a half years, Spain’s minister of economy, trade and business, Carlos Cuerpo, and Lithuania’s minister of finance, Rimantas Šadžius, withdrew their candidacies, Brussels announced.
The meeting of the informal forum of single currency leaders will vote only on the name of Ireland’s finance minister and current leader, Paschal Donohoe.
“We believe that the current Eurogroup president meets all the conditions to remain in office and be re-elected, hence Portugal’s support for Paschal Donohoe,” said Portuguese finance minister Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, speaking to the Portuguese press in Brussels before the start of the Eurogroup meeting.
As Lusa had already reported, the Portuguese government will support Irish Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe in his bid for re-election as leader of the Eurogroup, a position he has held since 2020.
This Portuguese support for Ireland ends an informal commitment between Portugal and Spain to support each other for senior EU positions.
According to the Council (which brings together the Member States of the European Union), the election of the new president will take place by a simple majority of Eurogroup ministers (11 out of 20 votes).
Ministers will learn who the winner is at the end of the meeting.
The Eurogroup is the informal body that brings together the ministers of the euro area to discuss issues related to the single currency.
Once elected, the president is responsible for chairing Eurogroup meetings, setting the agenda for those meetings, drawing up the long-term work programme, and representing the Eurogroup in international forums.
Irish Minister Paschal Donohoe has held the position since July 2020, and he was re-elected in December 2022.
Paschal Donohoe succeeded Mário Centeno, the former Portuguese Finance Minister and current Governor of the Bank of Portugal, who served as President of the Eurogroup between January 2018 and July 2020.
The Eurogroup was created in 1997.
Any minister in office with responsibility for finance in a euro area member state can be elected president of the Eurogroup.
ANE/ADB // ADB.
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