Eurozone crisis/Catalogs

Jose Manuel Barroso
President of the European Commission since 2004 website. Previously Prime Minister of Portugal and leader of its Social Democratic Party.

Silvio Berlusconi
Former Prime Minister of Italy (2008-2011 and two previous terms). Businessman and media proprietor. Founder of the conservative Forza Italia political party. The subject of alleged sex scandals. Has been accused of embezzlement, tax fraud and false accounting, and attempting to bribe a judge, but has never been convicted. A range of polls in September 2011 indicated that some 80 per cent of Italians had lost confidence in his ability to govern, and he lost the support of parliament and was forced to resign in November 2011.

Pedro Passos Coelho
Prime Minister of Portugal since June 2011. Economics graduate and former businessman. Leader of the Social Democratic Party.

Mario Draghi
Governor of the Bank of Italy since 16 January 2006. President of the European Central Bank from November 2011.

Jean-Claude Juncker
President of Luxembourg since 1995 website. Previously leader of the Christian Socialist Party. Chairman of the Eurogroup of eurozone Finance Ministers. Proponent of eurobonds.

Angela Merkel
Chancellor of Germany since 2005 (website). Leader of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union and head of a coalition with the centre-right Free Democratic Party since re-elected in 2009 (the next elections are due in 2013). Under international pressure to rescue Greece and under domestic pressure to abandon it (a poll conducted in September 2011 by the Forsa Institute, 80% of Germans  are against rescuing Greece). Her approval rating dropped to 36 per cent in August 2011, compared with 60 per cent 3 years  previously.

Mario Monti
Distinguished Italian economist.(FT profile) Former Chancellor and Professor of Political Economy. at Bocconi University. European Commissioner for Competition from 1999 to 2004. Possible successor to Silvio Berlusconi as Prime Minister of Italy.

Lucas Papademos
Prime Minister of Greece from 10th November 2011. Distinguished Greek economist and former vice president of the European Central Bank.

George Papandreou
Former Prime Minister of Greece 2009-2011 (website). Leader of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (BBC profile). Resigned 07 November 2011.

Mariano Rajoy
Leader of the Spanish Partido Popular (PP) conservative party.

Horst Reichenbach
Leader of the European Comission's Greece task force since July 2011. Previously Vice President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Olli Rehn
European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs since 2010. (website)

Nicholas Sarkozy
President of France since 2007 website. A lawyer by training. Previously president of the centre-right Union for a Popular Movement. His initially high approval rating fell to 30 percent in April 2011 and recovered slightly to reach 37 percent at the start of September. Intends to stand for re-election in April 2012, but he is said to be France's most unpopular president. His re-election prospects are said to have been set back by his party's loss of control of the Senate, but enhanced by the success of France's intervention in the Libyan civil war.

Wolfgang Schaeuble
German Finance Minister since 2009 website.

José Sócrates
Former Prime Minister of Portugal (2004-2011). Leader of the Socialist Party. Succeeded as Prime Minister by Pedro Passos Coelho in June 2011.

Giulio Tremonti
Italian Finance Minister since 2005. Professor of Law. Has a reputation for fiscal prudence. Weakened by rumoured connection with a graft scandal in 2011.

Jean-Claude Trichet
President of the European Central Bank since 2003 (term of office ends November 2011).

Evangelos Venizelos
Greek Finance Minister since June 2011. Socialist Party member. Constitutional lawyer. Rival to George Papandreou. (BBC profile)

Christian Wilhelm Walter Wulff
President of Germany since June 2010. Formerly Premier of Lower Saxony. Member of the Christian Democratic Union.

Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero
Prime Minister of Spain 2008 to 2011 website. Leader of the ruling Socialist Party. Has called a general election for 20th November 2011 and he does not intend to seek re-election.