Greece’s economy minister and newly elected president of the Eurogroup, Kyriakos Pierrakakis, is being profiled in France’s Le Point as the reform‑minded technocrat who wants to “wake up” Europe and push for a more integrated, competitive eurozone.
In a feature titled “Kyriakos Pierrakakis, the Greek who wants to wake up Europe,” journalists Emmanuel Berretta and Alexia Kefala trace Mr. Pierrakakis’s path from overseeing digital and economic reforms in Athens to becoming the first Greek to lead the informal gathering of euro area finance ministers.
On Dec. 11, 2025, eurozone finance ministers chose Mr. Pierrakakis, 43, to succeed Ireland’s Paschal Donohoe for a two‑and‑a‑half‑year term.
The symbolism was hard to miss: a decade earlier, Greece had been on the brink of exiting the euro, and the same room in Brussels had hosted decisions on Athens’ bailout programmes.
As Eurogroup president, Mr. Pierrakakis sets the agenda, brokers consensus and chairs the board of the European Stability Mechanism, the rescue fund that once financed Greece. He has made completing the Capital Markets Union and advancing banking integration top priorities, arguing that Europe saves more than the U.S. but channels capital less effectively.
He also advocates a single EU‑wide auction for 5G and 6G spectrum and a unified telecoms regulator, proposing that revenues help fund the EU budget.
“Show, don’t tell,” he says, citing Greece’s own reforms: the consolidation of more than 2,250 public services on the Gov.gr platform, the Athens Stock Exchange’s integration into Euronext, and cross‑border bank deals such as UniCredit’s stake in Alpha Bank.
Since taking the finance portfolio in March 2025, Mr. Pierrakakis has overseen a sharp fall in public debt from a peak near 210% of GDP in 2020 to around 130%, alongside unemployment dropping to 8.2% in late 2025.
He says fiscal surpluses should fuel growth, not stagnation, and points to tax cuts and family‑friendly reforms inspired by France’s model.
Colleagues describe him as fast‑thinking, disciplined and unusually comfortable with complex voting mechanics. Back in Athens, however, inflation, low wages and a farm‑subsidies scandal remain political headwinds ahead of next spring’s elections.