The Minister of Economy, Carlos Corpora, has presented his candidacy for the presidency of the Eurogroup, the institution that encompasses the finance ministers of the euro zone, which had a key role during the financial crisis of 2008. The Ministry of Economy has confirmed the body decision, which in an interview in the chain to be this week said that Pedro Sánchez “encouraged” to take the step. The way to get the presidency of that agency is not easy since most Eurozone countries are in the hands of conservative governments, although in some coalitions, such as Germany, the finance portfolio falls to the Socialists.
Body has been probing his colleagues for weeks for a position that has always resisted Spain, since Luis de Guindos withdrew from the race and Nadia Calviño lost to the Irish Pascal Donohoe, who intends to revalidate a new mandate. “I appreciate the support I am receiving from colleagues,” Donohoe said last week upon arrival at the Eurogroup meeting in Luxembourg on the process that started last Thursday. The deadline for the presentation of the candidacies ended this Friday at noon and the final decision will occur in a vote in July. Body would continue to lead the Ministry in case of Victoria, because the presidency of the Eurogroup falls to one of its members.
The race is not, in principle, simple for the Spanish minister. In the decision, numerous interests related to ideological balances are intermingled, but also geographical. In the distribution of the power of European institutions weigh the alliances of popular, socialists and liberals, and now the European Popular Party is especially grown after having grown up in European elections and, above all, having gained a very important weight in the EU council, where they have half of seats and have just taken the jewel of the crown: Germany. The socialists, on the contrary, are in a fall layer and the only one of the greats they preside is precisely Spain. Calviño, in fact, lost in 2020, despite having the support of France and Germany.
However, coalition governments can give a certain margin, since in Germany, for example, the economic portfolio is in the hands of the social democrats of the SPD. Geographical balances also come into play. Countries like Italy, in the hands of the ultra -right of Giorgia Meloni and the Democristians, or Greece can prefer that the Eurogroup is leading a southern country.
The other factor that weighs in this type of decisions is the representation that countries already have in power positions. And there Spain does not go wrong. After the European elections, Sánchez placed Teresa Ribera in the First Vice Presidency of the European Commission, as head of clean and fair transition and especially with the juicy competition. Previously, Nadia Calviño had left the government towards Luxembourg to preside over the European Investment Bank.
A week before the process started, the great economies of the euro (Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands) sent a letter in which they claimed a boost for the Eurogroup. “The mandate of the next president of the Eurogroup will begin at a critical moment, both from the macroeconomic and geopolitical point of view. Therefore, the Eurogroup must be up to the height of these new challenges based on their strengths,” said the text.
“The Eurogroup should focus on implementing the necessary measures, structural reforms and investments to strengthen economic growth and improve the sustainability of the debt,” said the signatories, which suggest more changes is in the mode of operation of the Eurogroup, an institution created in 1997 so that the countries of the euro address the issues that affect the common currency, although they do not have the capacity to make decisions but have to be adopted in the framework of 27.
Although the letter does not suppose the support of these countries to the body candidacy, it does contain the tone that the minister has maintained, which in May said that talking about his candidacy was “premature” and circumscribed the debate to “the background issues”, among which he mentioned the role of the euro in the international context, the advances in the bank union and in the capital market. But Spain has not hidden that Donohoe has not given him the expected impulse and has led initiatives, such as the pilot project for a European savings product.
“The current geopolitical scenario demands urgently, agile and ambition, the European political agenda, in whose definition the Eurogroup plays a critical role. Spain wishes to maximize this role with a renewed impulse,” they point out in the Ministry of Economy: “In particular, as the minister maintains, that new impulse would allow progress in determining areas for growth, the reinforcement of the welfare state Integration between Eurozone countries: the agenda for the impulse of competitiveness, the deepening of the Savings and Investment Union to advance in the European Single Market and the reinforcement of the international role of the euro, as well as financial stability and fiscal responsibility. ”
