ESM Board of Governors elects Jeroen Dijsselbloem as its Chairman

Luxembourg, 12-2-2013 — /europawire.eu/ — The Board of Governors of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) today elected the President of the Eurogroup Jeroen Dijsselbloem as its Chairman. In this capacity Jeroen Dijsselbloem succeeds Jean-Claude Juncker, who stepped down as President of the Eurogroup in January.

Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who is also Finance Minister of the Netherlands, said: “I am honoured by the confidence my colleagues have shown me. It will be my key task to allow the ESM to develop its full potential as the crisis resolution mechanism the currency union needs.” He added: “I would like to pay tribute to Jean-Claude Juncker without whom the temporary European Financial Stability
Facility (EFSF) and the ESM would not be what they are today.”

Klaus Regling, Managing Director of the ESM said: “I am delighted that Jeroen Dijsselbloem agreed to become the Chairman of our Board of Governors. I am convinced he will be able to integrate the various views in the euro area and to drive integration of the ESM forward”. He added: “I would also like to thank Jean-Claude Juncker to whom both the EFSF and the ESM are deeply indebted.”

The Board of Governors forms the highest governing body of the ESM and comprises the Ministers of Finance of the euro area Member States as voting members. The European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs and the ECB President participate in the meetings as observers. The most important decisions taken by the Board of Governors require unanimity. These include
decisions to provide stability support to an ESM member and the choice of instruments, conditions and terms of such support.

About ESM
The European Stability Mechanism (ESM) is an inter-governmental institution which was inaugurated on 8 October 2012. Its mandate is to preserve financial stability of Europe’s Economic and Monetary Union by providing financial assistance to euro area Member States in difficulty. In order to fulfil its mission, the ESM is authorised to issue bonds or other debt instruments on the
market to raise funds needed to provide loans to countries in financial difficulties, intervene in the debt primary and secondary markets, act on the basis of a precautionary programme and finance recapitalisations of financial institutions through loans to governments including in non-programme
countries. All financial assistance to Member States is linked to appropriate conditionality.

The shareholders of the ESM are the 17 euro area Member States. It has a total subscribed capital of €700 billion which comprises €80 billion in paid-in capital and €620 billion in committed callable capital. The ESM’s effective lending capacity is €500 billion.

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