Ireland, Lithuania and Spain: Who will lead the Eurogroup next?

Euronews

11 hours ago

Ireland, Lithuania and Spain are vying for leadership of the Eurogroup on Monday, which chairs the monthly meetings of the 20 eurozone finance ministers and plays a key role in coordinating and influencing the Council's economic policy decisions.
Over the past two decades, the Eurogroup has had only four permanent presidents: Luxembourg's Jean-Claude Juncker (2005–2013), the Netherlands' Jeroen Dijsselbloem (2013–2018), Portugal's Mário Centeno (2018–2020), and Ireland's Paschal Donohoe.
Since 2020, the position has been held by Donohoe, a member of the influential European People's Party (EPP). But for his potential third term, the Irishman is being challenged by the socialist finance ministers of Spain and Lithuania, Carlos Cuerpo and Rimantas Šadžius, who are offering an alternative vision for the next two and a half years.
The vote on Monday will be held in secret. To win, a candidate must secure at least eleven out of twenty votes.
Cuerpo offers a 'renewed' and ambitious agenda
The Spanish contender, Carlos Cuerpo, is an economist with a PhD and previous experience at the European Commission and Spain's fiscal watchdog, AIReF. He has served as Spain's finance minister since late 2023, when he succeeded Nadia Calviño, who now leads the Luxembourg-based European Investment Bank.
Cuerpo is not the first Spaniard to seek leadership of this informal group. Calviño ran against Donohoe in 2022, and Luis de Guindos—now Vice President of the European Central Bank—also tried to secure the role during his time as economy minister under a Spanish Popular Party government.
In his motivation letter to fellow ministers, Cuerpo laid out an 'ambitious' and renewed agenda aimed at strengthening the eurozone's long-term growth, completing the capital markets union, boosting the international role of the euro, and finalizing the banking union.
'The time has come to move from discussion to delivery. The credibility of our collective project depends not on what we say, but on what we achieve—together, and without delay,' Cuerpo wrote.
Earlier this month, Spain—along with Germany, France, and Italy—presented a discussion paper arguing that although the Eurogroup has been effective during crises, it has often lacked decisiveness in other areas, particularly in advancing the capital markets union.
As a Spanish socialist, the 44-year-old finance minister has also supported issuing new common debt to strengthen Europe's defence capabilities. He has called for doubling the EU's next long-term budget—from 1% of the bloc's GDP—to fund both traditional priorities, such as agriculture and cohesion, and new ones, including security, defence, and the green and digital transitions.
Several diplomatic sources suggest the real contest is between Cuerpo and Donohoe. However, Cuerpo's political family is in the minority within the Eurogroup, and his more transformative proposals may face resistance from fiscally conservative countries like Germany and the Netherlands.
Paschal Donohoe: 'predictability' in times of crisis
Amid soaring trade tensions and a war on the EU's borders, Paschal Donohoe tells his 19 finance peers in a letter seeking their support that the global economy is at 'a pivotal juncture'.
Despite all the challenges, the Irishman argues that the Eurogroup remains a source of predictability, stability and transparency. He also praised the achievements of recent years under his leadership, while warning that more work is needed.
"The changing external environment gives us the impetus and imperative to progress on long-standing issues and deliver on our shared priorities," he said, promising to remain an honest broker in the group's negotiations.
If he is re-elected, he plans to deepen the European capital markets, make progress on the digital euro, promote greater dynamism in integration, and continue to invest in security cooperation.
'An awful lot can happen in a number of weeks in the world that we're in, but I am encouraged by the support I've currently received,' the Irish finance minister told Euronews in a recent interview.
Šadžius calls for a less concentrated capital markets union
In the race for the presidency of the Eurogroup, Rimantas Šadžius is the wild card. Despite being a highly experienced finance minister from Lithuania, he faces two main disadvantages: he belongs to the socialist political family—meaning he competes for the same pool of votes as Carlos Cuerpo—and he is seeking the backing of smaller countries, a constituency Paschal Donohoe has long cultivated.
Šadžius has served as a member of the Luxembourg-based European Court of Auditors, and has played a leading role in Lithuania's accession to the eurozone since 2015.
He also chaired ECOFIN during Lithuania's presidency of the Council of the EU in 2013, a period marked by key decisions on the creation of the Banking Union.
Diplomatic sources suggest Šadžius could attract support from EU member states closest to Russia's border, but he is not expected to gain enough votes to win the race.
In his letter to fellow ministers, the Lithuanian candidate pledges to promote deeper integration of member states into the euro area, avoid overlaps with the European Council's agenda, ensure fiscal sustainability, and accelerate the rollout of the digital euro.
Like his rivals, Šadžius commits to completing both the banking union and the capital markets union. However, he stresses the need to address the fact that the latter remains 'heterogeneous and more concentrated in Western and Northern Europe.'