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Jean-Claude Juncker, Eurogroup President

Wednesday 5 January 2011 - by Andrew Hickley

Jean-Claude Juncker, Eurogroup President (left) and US President Barack Obama
 The Luxembourg Prime Minister has been closely involved in European sovereign debt bailouts and has been a strident advocate for a new Eurobond system. He comes 23rd in the GFS Power 50.

The President and chairman of the Eurogroup, whose 16 finance ministers oversee the eurozone, was heavily involved in the bailouts of Greece and Ireland.

Juncker has been highly critical of Greek economic policy over the past 12 months, claiming that it is a travesty that other European states will have to mop up because of their poor fiscal supervision.

However he is overall very positive about the future of the Euro, declaring declared that the currency will be "one of the world's strongest currencies in 10 years time" and has brushed off suggestions that there will need to be a bailout of Spain or Portugal.

Juncker has recently courted controversy with a war of words with Germany over the issue of jointly guaranteed Eurobonds, a solution he believes could end the sovereign debt crisis that has engulfed Europe.

The Eurobond system would involve the temporary European Financial Stability Facility - built to issue bailouts to endangered countries - being developed into a new European Debt Agency which in turn would create the world's largest bond market.


Juncker has used his political clout to argue that the EDA could finance up to 50 per cent of bond issuances by EU members, offering access for member states that get into difficulty with no risk of moral hazard or short-term speculation.

After this proposal was ultimately overlooked, Juncker slammed German Chancellor Angela Merkel for apparently rejecting the idea before even studying its potential effects. He claimed that Germany was instead prepared to dabble in other more "taboo" areas of financial regulatory change.

The 56-year-old has a long history in politics, having been elected into the Luxembourg Chamber of Deputies in 1984. He has been Prime Minister of Luxembourg since 1995.

His political prowess was demonstrated as early as 1989, when he managed to win a seat in parliament despite spending two weeks of his election campaign in a coma.

Learn more about the GFS Power 50, a countdown of the most influential people in worldwide financial regulation in 2010.


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