Voorzitter eurogroep Juncker niet blij met loslippige Oostenrijkse collega (en)

COPENHAGEN - Eurogroup chief Jean-Claude Juncker i in a fit of pique on Friday (30 March) cancelled a planned press conference to announce an increase in the eurozone firewall because the Austrian finance minister spilled the beans first.

Instead, he emailed a press release detailing the decision to increase the joint lending capacity of the two eurozone bail-out funds to €700 billion - the main decision that was expected out of the informal ministerial meeting.

"He was furious", one EU official told reporters referring to the Luxembourger's snap decision.

Earlier that day, just half an hour before the end of the Eurogroup, Austrian finance minister Maria Fekter held a briefing with German speaking journalists confirming the increase.

Later on she reportedly apologised to Juncker and explained that she had been trying to give an overview of the discussions, not the outcome of the meeting.

But Juncker was adamant about the correctness of his decision. He told Le Monde over the phone that he wanted to "make a point" about the need to keep the ministers disciplined. "If we reveal the decisions before they are actually taken, then there's no need for me to hold a press conference," Juncker told the French paper.

Eurozone jobs decision postponed

Meanwhile, another decision that should have been taken during the Eurogroup meeting - the replacement for the outgoing Spanish board member of the European Central Bank - was postponed until mid-April.

"Some said it was not the right time to take the decision now. I was not paying too much attention to that, as I was focusing on the European Stability Mechanism (the permanent bail-out fund for the eurozone)," German finance minister Wolfgang Schauble told reporters after the meeting.

Spain - favouring its own candidate - and France, in a no-go mood ahead of presidential elections on 22 April, are said to have requested that the decision be postponed. Earlier this week an EU official familiar with the talks told reporters in Brussels that the decision was to be taken this weekend so as not to leave the post vacant when the mandate of Jose Manuel Gonzalez-Paramo ends in May.

But another official in Copenhagen said that it was "surprising" to think the ECB job would not be linked with the other vacancies - the Eurogroup chairmanship when Juncker's mandate ends in June and the top post of the upcoming permanent euro rescue-fund, the ESM, due to come into being on 1 July.

If Luxembourg's candidate for the ECB job - Yves Mersch - is picked, Juncker's re-election to the Eurogroup looks unlikely as some countries, particularly France, would object to Luxembourg holding both posts. That in turn would favour German finance minister Schauble, who is currently tipped as favourite in the Eurogroup informal 'race.'

But if Spain loses the ECB job, it wants to appoint Romana Belen, a former treasury official, as head of the ESM. This in turn clashes with the French, who have their own choices for the bail-out fund: treasury chief Ramon Fernandez or Xavier Musca, head of a council working group of 27 finance ministry officials.

Germany, however, would have to choose between a one-and-a half year mandate for Schauble leading the Eurogroup - as his mandate would run out if the elections in 2013 bring about a change of government and keeping Klaus Regling - currently head of the temporary European Financial Stability Facility as head of the permanent bail-out fund, the ESM.

"They might do it, just for internal political reasons, to reassure the public that Schauble is in the driving seat," one EU official told this website.