Ligi has the right stuff

TALLINN - In an article published in Spiegel Online, Christoph Schwennicke proposes Estonian Finance Minister Jurgen Ligi as the new president of the euro area finance ministers meeting, or the so-called Eurogroup, reports Postimees Online.
The article, titled “An Estonian should be the next Juncker,” proposes that when Jean-Claude Juncker, who has headed the Eurogroup since 2005, resigns in July, the euro area finance ministers’ body needs a new head, and Ligi would suit very well.

Schwennicke states that Ligi would be a perfect successor to Juncker as he comes from a state that has, thanks to strong economic reforms in recent years, been recently accepted into the euro area and is a role model to Greece and other problematic states using the euro. The journalist says that Ligi’s presence would help remind Greece that even from the deepest depths, it is possible to raise oneself into being a poster child of the euro area.
The article says that Ligi has strong political willpower, citing the budget cuts Estonia made in 2009 that reached 8 percent of GDP, and the economic growth that was restored after the crisis.

The author of the article also thinks it is important that Ligi is from a small euro area state, and could thus receive the trust of both big and large euro area states.