Event Summary
Jeroen Dijsselbloem, president of the Eurogroup, discussed further steps to secure a thriving Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), in both economic and social terms, in a speech on April 17, 2015, at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Since the overt euro crisis, substantial measures have been taken to strengthen the governance of the EMU. This has helped promote budgetary discipline by its members, and a sustainable recovery now seems to be emerging. The euro area should not rest on its laurels but build on this recovery.
Dijsselbloem has been Eurogroup president since January 2013. In 2013, the Board of Governors of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) also elected him as its chairman. In November 2012, he was appointed minister of finance in the Rutte-Asscher government, a position he still holds. Dijsselbloem was a member of the Dutch House of Representatives from 2000 until taking up his post as minister in 2012. He also served as advisor to the minister of agriculture, nature management and fisheries in The Hague in 1996–98.