<strong>Eduardo González</strong> <h4><strong>The Minister of Economy, Trade, and Enterprise, Carlos Cuerpo, will run for the presidency of the Eurogroup, the forum of eurozone finance ministers, this Monday, a position that, to date, has been a struggle for Spain.</strong></h4> The Eurogroup will elect its president for the next term this Monday in Brussels. The minister will compete against the current president of the Eurogroup, Irishman Paschal Donohoe (EPP), who has held the position since 2020 and is the favorite to win a third consecutive two-and-a-half-year term. The other candidate is Lithuanian Finance Minister Rimantas Sadzius. The winner must obtain a simple majority, and several rounds of voting are planned if necessary. To obtain the position, Carlos Cuerpo will have to convince his counterparts from the 20 Eurogroup member states, nine of which belong to the European People's Party (EPP) and two others to far-right governments in Finland and Italy. Spain has already attempted to win the position twice. The two previous attempts were made by Luis de Guindos, former Economy Minister under Mariano Rajoy, in 2015, and by Nadia Calviño, Pedro Sánchez's first female Minister of Economic Affairs, who also failed in 2020, precisely to Donohoe. In return, de Guindos is the current Vice President of the European Central Bank (ECB), and Nadia Calviño is President of the European Investment Bank (EIB). Specifically, one of the main obstacles to the Corps candidacy could be the presence of Calviño at the EIB and De Guindos at the ECB, in addition to José Manuel Campa as president of the European Banking Authority, since their appointment would grant Spain excessive influence in the EU's financial and economic institutions, which might not be welcomed by the rest of the countries. The Eurogroup presidency does not grant executive power, decision-making capacity, or a casting vote, but it does allow for control of the agenda and influence in debates and the search for consensus.
