Four candidates vying for Eurogroup presidency and Edward Scicluna is not one of them

Four finance ministers have put forward their candidacy to become president of the Eurogroup, replacing Dutchman Jeroen Dijsselbloem when his term ends in January.

The eurogroup brings together the finance ministers of EU member states that have adopted the euro as their currency. The election to replace Dijsselbloem will take place at a meeting of the Eurogroup next Monday and Malta's Edward Scicluna will not be in the contest.

Earlier this month, Edward Scicluna told MaltaToday he was interested in putting forward his candidacy but much depended on the discussions between the political groupings.

The four candidates for the post are Portugal's Mario Centeno, Luxembourg's Pierre Gramegna, Slovakia's Peter Kazimir and Latvia's Dana Reizniece-Ozola, a statement from the European Council said.

Scicluna had said he would contest the post if there was agreement it should be occupied by someone from the Social and Democrats grouping in which case he would have had to face off with Centeno and Kazimir. However, the four-way race now includes Gramegna and Ozola, two candidates hailing from the liberal grouping.

The election of the new president will take place on 4 December, by means of a simple majority vote.