Kyriakos Pierrakakis: How he became a main contender for Eurogroup chairmanship

A major development, which upgrades the country’s role in the European and international community, has already begun to be widely discussed among leading “players” in the eurozone countries against the backdrop of a change of baton in the leadership of the Eurogroup.

The Greek Minister of National Economy and Finance, Kyriakos Pierrakakis, who took over the crucial duties in March this year, having left a particularly positive imprint in the ministries of Digital Governance and Education, is emerging as a key figure in the country’s transition to the high echelons of the Eurozone.

He has so far neither nominated himself nor formally put himself forward as a candidate; moreover, the relevant election process has not yet been opened, since a series of crucial consultations at the upper and inevitably at the highest level of the Eurozone are expected before the next Eurogroup/Ecofin meeting on December 11 and 12.

However, publications starting the day before yesterday, from the Irish Times, show Kyriakos Pierrakakis as one of the three contenders for the top job and a rival to the Belgian and the Spaniard. The Greek minister is currently running the Euronext acquisition of the Athens Stock Exchange, one of the biggest investments in decades, which will contribute to the overall upgrade of the Greek economy. “It is a very big vote of confidence. It is a reflection of the progress that has been made in our country in recent years,” says Mr. Pierrakakis on one of the two impressive developments of the last 24 hours that are linked to his own personal contribution to European affairs.

So far, according to the Financial Times, three are on the list of main contenders: in addition to Kyriakos Pierrakakis, Belgium’s Vincent Van Peteghem, and Spain’s Carlos Cuerpo. The Spanish socialist minister ran against Donyahu last time as well, and it is not easy to withdraw. The majority of Eurogroup seats belong to the European People’s Party and possibly its alliances, strengthening the possibility of a candidate from that political family. Until the election of a new chairman, the duties will be carried out by Cypriot Finance Minister Makis Keraynos, and there will have been intense behind-the-scenes consultations and official contacts about the change of baton in the chairmanship of the body.

Those in the know estimate that the correlations that will emerge are indeed shaped on the basis of the prevailing political group, but the dynamics of the individuals and the signs of writing during the previous moments of the battle will play a role in their final impression.

The “standard” description of the current correlations is that in the 20 eurozone countries, 7 ministers are from the European People’s Party to which the New Republic belongs, 7 from the European Socialist Party (and the German minister and vice-chancellor, Klingbeil is a social democrat), 4 from the Centrists of Europe (Macron’s and others) and two from the far-right.

The meeting on digitisation

Kyriakos Pierrakakis has had a successful track record in European ministerial teams since his first term in the Digital Agenda. In fact, now being Minister of Economy and Finance on 20 September 2025 at the informal ECOFIN in Copenhagen, he was invited by the Danish Presidency to moderate the thematic debate on innovation and digitalisation. At the meeting, ministers exchanged views on reforms that can boost growth, as well as on prioritising strategic sectors and addressing obstacles that slow down Europe’s technological transformation.

Mr. Pierrakakis, chairing the discussion, conveyed to his European counterparts his personal experience of the digital transformation of the Greek state and stressed that the promotion of innovation and digitalization is a central lever for boosting Europe’s productivity and competitiveness. He stressed the need to complete the single market, as proposed by the Letta and Draghi reports, with an emphasis on removing the “invisible barriers” that fragment the economy and limit scale. At the same time, he stressed the need to complete the Savings and Investment Union.

As the Greek Minister then noted, the European Investment Bank has helped support start-ups through the European Investment Fund, but European start-ups must have the conditions to grow within the EU and on a large scale. A change in the way public procurement is carried out and a reduction in the time needed to implement it is crucial, he added. The experience of the pandemic and the European digital certificate have highlighted the importance of interoperability of services at the pan-European level. “The gains for citizens and businesses will be huge if we manage to achieve it in practice”, he stressed.

It is noteworthy that after the end of the thematic session, Mr. Pierrakakis presented the conclusions of the discussion to the ECOFIN plenary session, in the presence of the President of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, the European Commissioner for Economic Affairs, Valdis Dombrovskis, and the IMF’s Director for Europe, Alfred Kammer. The International Monetary Fund – it should be noted – has produced a report on the structural reforms it considers necessary to promote at the European level.

Meeting with European Commission execs

Pierrakakis has held a series of meetings in the context of the Eurogroup and ECOFIN meetings to exchange views and analyses of the situation with other top economy ministers and leading players in Europe.

On 13 May, he met with European Commission Executive Vice-Presidents Stéphane Séjourné and Raffaele Fitto and Budget Commissioner Piotr Serafin, to whom he reiterated Greece’s full support for the Commission’s efforts to reach a trade agreement with the US. In the field of Defence, they discussed the critical importance of strengthening resources at both the European and national level, which will produce substantial benefits for the Union as a whole and for each Member State individually. At the same time, he stressed the need for Europe to focus on policies to strengthen its competitiveness through the promotion of our strategic priorities – and, in particular, the completion of the Banking Union and the launch of the digital euro.

On the same day, he had the opportunity to congratulate in a one-to-one meeting the German Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil on taking up his new duties, while with his Italian counterpart Giancarlo Giorgetti,i he focused on the issues of financing