How a dining club briefly took over the EU

THE EUROGROUP is arguably the European Union’s strangest institution. It started life as a dining club for euro-zone finance ministers to gossip before the official meetings of ministers from the whole EU, yet morphed into a forum where the fate of nations was decided. During the euro-zone crisis, the terms of bail-outs totalling more than €500bn ($550bn) were agreed at its informal, closed-door meetings, at which no minutes were taken (but alcohol and cigarettes were). Even its legal existence is a matter of debate. A recent opinion from a legal adviser at the European Court of Justice suggested that any cases brought against the Eurogroup were inadmissible. The club’s only official rules are that euro-zone finance ministers shall meet for regular informal chats and give its presidents two-and-a-half-year stints. Beyond that, it is a free-for-all. Its working methods can be changed at will. It is Brussels as its best and worst: unaccountable, opaque and brutally efficient. At times it was the closest thing the euro zone had to a government.