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Mário Centeno will not even be available to continue leading the Eurogroup and has already decided that he will not run again for a second term in front of that informal institution,
this Friday the influential German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ).
The German publication writes that Centeno’s peers in the Eurogroup comment in a closed circuit that the Portuguese have already decided not to appear in the next elections for the leadership of the euro bloc. The period of the Portuguese economist ends on July 13.
In response to Negócios, a Eurogroup source points out that the decision on the next leader of the institution should never be taken after the July meeting and guarantees that Mário Centeno will communicate the decision on whether or not to re-appear in due course. For now, the same source points out that the minister is focused on work as president of the Eurogroup, “extremely demanding” in these times of crisis.
In recent times there have been several reports on Centeno’s alleged intention to leave the government to succeed Carlos Costa as governor of the Banco de Portugal, whose term ends on July 9. In March, after speaking with the President of the Republic, in Belém, Mário Centeno gave assurances that he would not abandon his duties during the crisis caused by Covid-19.
Finance ministers unhappy with Centeno
In addition to the lack of availability to continue leading the institution, the German newspaper also refers to growing discontent among the remaining 18 euro finance ministers regarding Centeno’s performance.
Based on diplomatic sources, FAZ reports that it criticizes the way Mário Centeno was poorly prepared in the meetings and the demonstrated inability to assume as a true promoter of commitments.
In this sense, he recalls the long meeting of 16 hours on April 8 that ended without the finance ministers being able to reach an agreement on the response to the effects caused by the pandemic.
Regarding this meeting in which the division between countries, such as Italy, allowed access to the precautionary line of the euro rescue fund only without conditions, and those, such as the Netherlands, did not abdicate to link support to the conditions, FAZ reveals that Centeno interrupted the video conference several times for individual conversations. This will have generated discontent among the ministers who were forced to wait long minutes.
Two days passed after the Eurogroup agreed to create three safety nets (Member States, jobs and companies) worth 540 billion euros, however, the German publication notes that the compromise was only reached thanks to the intervention of the chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, as well as speeches by their finance ministers, Olaf Scholz and Bruno Le Maire, respectively.
The Eurogroup has a new videoconference meeting scheduled for 2:00 pm (Lisbon time) this Friday, and the FAZ says it is not known if Centeno intends to communicate its intentions to the other ministers.
The Minister of Finance will be convinced that he can still conclude the ongoing negotiations for the creation of an EU economic recovery fund, however, the FAZ stresses that this statement is not realistic given that the process is now in the hands of the European Comission .
The Commission was due to present a proposal on May 6, however, persistent divisions over the degree of risk sharing in the community’s response continue to hamper the process, as the Business progresses.
Calviño at the head of the Eurogroup?
Finally, among other possible candidates, FAZ said that Spanish Finance Minister Nadia Calviño is the favorite to succeed Centeno. Calviño’s eventual candidacy would benefit from the same geographical and partisan balance that helped Centeno, both close to European socialists.
On the other hand, the Spanish minister is very aware of the complexities of Brussels, since he was director general of the budget of the European Commission between 2014 and 2018.
(News updated at 11:55 am with reaction from the Eurogroup press office)
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