EU Finance Minister (Communication)

With the creation of an EU Finance Minister, the European Commission wants to improve coordination of economic policy in the EU. With this aim, he will combine three offices into one - EU Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Union, Chair of the Eurogroup and Chair of the Board of Governors of the European Monetary Fund.

cepPolicyBrief

The EU Finance Minister will not be given greater decision-making power than the present office holders. The extent to which he will be able, particularly as a result of the merger of offices, to improve procedures and remove the current deficits in coordination and monitoring, therefore depends primarily on his political skill. With a politically skilful EU Finance Minister, the balance of power between the Commission and the eurozone countries would also shift in favour of the Commission. It is therefore unlikely that the eurozone countries will agree to the Commission’s proposal.