The Dutch finance ministry has confirmed that senior civil servant Hans Vijlbrief has been nominated for the job of chairman of the Eurogroup Working Group, the body which prepares meetings of the influential Eurogroup of EU finance ministers, the NRC said on Tuesday.

The NRC reported last week that this was the finance ministry’s plan and the reason why the Netherlands did not support requests for Dutch Eurogroup chairman Jeroen Dijsselbloem to stay on in the job for a further six months.

Vijlbrief is currently the most senior civil servant in the finance ministry in the field of financial and economic policy. Austria’s Thomas Wieser will step down from the position in January.

On Monday evening, European finance ministers voted Portugal’s Mario Centeno as new Eurogroup chairman to succeed Dijsselbloem.

There had been calls for Dijsselbloem to stay in charge, even though he is no longer a government minister, until the political crisis in Germany had been solved and elections held in Italy.