Euro Group

The Eurogroup is the recognised collective term for informal meetings of the finance ministers of the eurozone, i.e. those member states of the European Union (EU) which have adopted the euro as their official currency.

The group has 19 members. It exercises political control over the currency and related aspects of the EU's monetary union such as the Stability and Growth Pact. Its current president is former Dutch finance minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem.

The ministers meet in camera a day before a meeting of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (Ecofin) of the Council of the European Union. They communicate their decisions via press and document releases. This group is related to the Council of the European Union (only Eurogroup states vote on issues relating to the euro in Ecofin) and was formalised under the Lisbon Treaty.

The Eurogroup, formerly known as the Euro-X and Euro-XI in relation to the number of states adopting the euro, was established at the request of France as a policy co-ordination and consultation forum on eurozone matters. The December 1997 European Council endorsed its creation and the first meeting was held on 4 June 1998 at Senningen Castle in Luxembourg .

To begin with, the chair of the Eurogroup mirrored that of the rotating Council presidency, except where the Council presidency was held by a non-eurozone country, in which case the chair was held by the next eurozone country that would hold the Council presidency. In 2004 the ministers decided to elect a president (see "President" below for details) and in 2008, the group held a summit of heads of state and government, rather than finance ministers, for the first time. This became known as the Euro summit and has held meetings irregularly during the financial crisis.

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