Former Luxembourg Finance Minister Pierre Gramegna will in future head the ESM euro rescue package. The finance and economics ministers of the euro countries agreed on Friday on a successor for long-time boss Klaus Regling, as the ESM announced. The German was the first chairman of the bailout fund introduced during the euro crisis to prop up the common currency. Gramegna will be in office from early December.
Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner had backed the Luxembourger. “Pierre Gramegna stands for stable public finances and fundamental market principles,” he said after the election. Gramegna is an excellent communicator and a convinced European. He was the first choice for the federal government. The ESM is a fund from which euro countries can obtain loans in the event of a crisis in order to ensure their solvency. It started around 2012 and provided Greece with money during the euro crisis – in return for reforms.
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