Jeroen

The Greek economic rescue program was "very hard, with many failures," the former head of the Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem has told Euronews in an interview.

Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who on Friday steps down as eurogroup chief, has said he never backed the idea of a Greek exit from the euro.

In an interview with the Financial Times published Friday, Dijsselbloem said a Greek exit from the euro area, intensely speculated in 2015, would have been "really damaging" and a "huge mistake."

The finance ministers from the 19 countries that use the euro are deciding who should lead their regular meetings, with Portugal's Mario Centeno widely tipped to take the helm of a group that has led the currency bloc's crisis-fighting efforts.

Outgoing Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem has welcomed a staff-level agreement (SLA) between Greece's government and representatives of the country's creditor institutions reached on Saturday.

"It was quite exceptional," that the agreement was reached in time, said Dijsselbloem in Brussels ahead of his last eurogroup meeting. "Today we will discuss the following steps," he added.

Caretaker Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem will leave national politics when a new government takes office in approximately two weeks, a Dutch newspaper reported on Wednesday.

De Volkskrant newpaper, with historic ties to Dijsselbloem's Labor party, said it had viewed a letter the politician sent to the chairwoman of Dutch parliament.

Maintaining political stability by averting the possibility of early elections before the term of the present government expires in 2019 is key for Greece right now, Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem tells Kathimerini.

The victory in Sunday's German election of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) - albeit with heavy losses - is a cause for concern in Athens as political developments in the European Union's wealthiest nation could punch holes in the narrative of Greece's leftist-led government with regard to a range of issues, not least the Greek bailout program and hopes for debt relie

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras welcomes Dutch Finance Minister and Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem at his office in the Maximos Mansion in Athens, Monday. [Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters]

Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem will be in Athens for talks with the country’s government on Monday, accompanied by Euro Working Group chairman, Thomas Wieser. The visit comes a day after Angela Merkel secured a victory in the German federal election.

Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos will meet with Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the chief of the eurozone's finance ministers, in Athens, on September 25, it was announced Monday.