Jean Claude Juncker became Prime Minister of Luxembourg in 1995 after years of serving as the Grand Duchy’s Finance Minister. Early on in his premiership, Juncker was a staunch proponent of European integration, contributing to the Maastricht treaty and many other important agreements in the continent. From 2005 and until 2013, Jean Claude Juncker served as the first President of the Eurogroup. In that role he helped shape the response to the sovereign debt crisis that had crippled euro zone economies beginning in 2009.
He was elected President of the European Commission by the European Parliament on 15 July 2014, after his election as the candidate of the European People’s Party (EPP) for the Presidency of the European Commission in the first ever Europe-wide campaign, a post he held until 2019. Juncker was an ardent proponent of greater European integration, and his nomination was championed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. At the helm of the institution, Juncker played a significant role in key recent European events like the Greek crisis, the refugee wave and Brexit.
