The chief finance minister for the euro zone intends to keep going in his current role until the new year, despite a Dutch election in March that cast a major shadow over his presidency.
Speaking to CNBC on the sidelines of the Ambrosetti Forum, Jeroen Dijsselbloem told CNBC that he will continue leading the group of euro zone finance ministers until mid-January – when his term officially comes to an end.
Dijsselbloem saw his Labour Party become one of the biggest losers in the Dutch vote earlier this year, meaning that it was unlikely that he would keep his role as finance minister. Since March he has continued serving in the caretaker executive and as a result also as head of the Eurogroup – a meeting of 19 finance ministers from the nations that share the euro. This is because Dutch politicians are still discussing how to form the country's next coalition government.
"Hopefully in one month, two months there will be light at the end of the tunnel (a new Dutch government). I'll finish my job for the euro zone, that runs until mid-January. That's my intention, and then after that we will see," he said in an exclusive interview.
Until January, his main focus will be the future governance of the euro area, which includes whether the 19-member zone should have a permanent head of its finance ministers. In the face of the economic recovery seen in the euro area since the debt crisis of 2011, Dijsselbloem said that international economic shocks - rather than internal affairs - are the biggest concern for the group.
"There's work to be done but I'm not very nervous about short term internal crisis in the euro zone," he concluded.