Lagarde tipped for Eurogroup in EU jobs trade-off [de]

France could decide to support Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker as the EU's first permanent president during a summit in Brussels today (19 November) in exchange for the chair of the Eurogroup, EurActiv France reports.

Juncker's possible nomination as EU president could trigger a wave of musical chairs as the Luxembourg premier is also president of the Eurogroup meeting of finance ministers, a position highly coveted by France.

The Eurogroup has political control over the euro currency and other aspects of the EU's monetary union such as the Stability and Growth Pact, which limits public budget deficits to a maximum of 3% of GDP. 

Juncker's mandate at the Eurogroup expires in January 2011.

Speaking on Europe 1 radio, French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde did not formally deny rumours in the European Parliament which are putting her in the frame to assume Juncker's role.

"I know absolutely nothing and I would start first by talking with the prime minister [François Fillon] and the president of the Republic [Nicolas Sarkozy] because these are positions […] and a European leadership which the bosses have to agree to," Lagarde said on Friday (13 November).

"It is only rumour for now," said French Socialist MEP Pervenche Berès, a former chair of the European Parliament's economic and monetary affairs committee. "But it is certain that Juncker's nomination would create a formidable void [to fill]," she said.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has already spelt out his ambitions for the EU's future economic policy. Speaking on 5 May during the European election campaign, the French president said Europe "could not do without an economic policy," adding it was "unreasonable" for countries that share the same currency not to have a "concerted economic policy". 

This, he said, "cannot be summarised to an inflation objective and respect of the criteria of the Stability Pact".

The crisis, Sarkozy continued, "provides us with the opportunity to go further in the reflection on economic policy as well as on competition policy". "We need debates on monetary policy. We need debates on budgetary policy. We need debates on competition policy," Sarkozy stressed.

Earlier this year, Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said he would seek a greater political dimension to the EU's economic policy when his country takes over the rotating EU presidency in the first half of 2010 (EurActiv 29/04/09).