Greek Finance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis was elected Thursday as president of the Eurogroup — a move that would have been unthinkable just 10 years ago, when the country was in the throes of a deep financial crisis that almost saw it tossed out of the eurozone altogether.
The Eurogroup is the informal body of finance ministers from the 20 European Union members that use the euro as their shared currency. It gathers regularly to discuss and coordinate economic policies in the euro area countries, and as such, wields significant power in the shaping of each country’s financial policy. The words of the Eurogroup president are closely followed.
