Centeno confirms he is not quitting job as president of Eurogroup

  • Lusa
  • 17 February 2020

Mario Centeno guaranteed that he's not leaving the leadership of Eurogroup. In January 2018, Centeno began a two-and-a-half-year term at the head of the informal forum of eurozone ministers.

Eurogroup president Mario Centeno on Monday assured Brussels that the theory that he is leaving the leadership of the informal forum of eurozone finance ministers “makes no sense at all”.

“That doesn’t make any sense. I am in full power as president of the Eurogroup, that is my job, that is what I am focused on, and that is what we are here for once again [in the Council, in Brussels]. We have an agenda that is very full of topics and very important for the euro area,” he said when asked about a recent statement by former PSD leader Marques Mendes, according to which the Portuguese finance minister has even told his counterparts that he will not run for a second term.

On February 9th, in his usual Sunday commentary on SIC TV, Marques Mendes said that the Finance Minister will leave the Government, heading to the Bank of Portugal, and has even said goodbye to the Eurogroup, having informally communicated to his colleagues that he would not run for a second term, a theory denied today by Mário Centeno at the entrance to a meeting of Finance Ministers of the euro area.

In January 2018, Mario Centeno began a two-and-a-half-year term at the head of the informal forum of eurozone ministers, which ends next July, and has yet to announce whether he will run for a second term.