Eurogroup, Looking Past Period of Crisis, Picks New Leader From Portugal<br />Mr. Giegold, who is German, said that Mr. Centeno, in his role as Portugal’s finance minister, had resisted pressure to cut pensions and had argued<br />that austerity was not the right way to help a country in crisis.<br />The move could signal that austerity policies imposed on struggling countries like Greece are nearing an end, and<br />that rather than simply trying to survive, the 19 finance ministers who make up the Eurogroup are debating how to make the bloc less susceptible to future crises.<br />Referring to a Eurogroup decision in 2013 to force depositors to share in losses by Cypriot banks, he said<br />that he "would be the first to reflect that my communication at the time could be better, but in substance I think we took the right decisions." It is unlikely that Mr. Centeno could have been elected as Eurogroup president a few years ago.<br />Alexis Tsipras, the left-wing politician who is Greece’s prime minister, called Mr. Centeno’s election "very promising." In an interview with the Portuguese newspaper Diário de Notícias, Mr. Tsipras said he hoped<br />that Mr. Centeno would make the Eurogroup’s deliberations more transparent.<br />European said that It’s very important to build a eurozone that is resilient,<br />The center of gravity on the Eurogroup was already shifting after the departure of Wolfgang Schäuble, the German<br />finance minister who was the group’s dominant member and a leading advocate for austerity policies.
