Mario Centeno, the Portuguese finance minister, is about to become president of the Eurogroup, one of the most powerful positions in the euro area.
He shrugged off potential risks from the ongoing uncertainty over Angela Merkel’s stalled coalition talks and the upcoming Italian election.
But he claimed countries that used the single currency faced a massive “shock” in 2018 from Britain exiting the bloc.
He said: “Brexit is a challenge and it’s a challenge that is a negative shock certainly for all these economies.”
And he claimed the prolonged negotiations over Brexit were causing huge uncertainty and would place Europe under pressure to reform.
He told the network: “Certainly we need to follow up on the Brexit process that I expect to be understood as a structural reform.
“From a negative shock we can and we should build positive solutions.”
Mr Centeno will take on his new role leading the group of 19 finance ministers in January, promising two years of “quite intense” reforms.
Like Emmanuel Macron and Jean-Claude Juncker, he is keen for closer integration between the EU member states.
During his campaign to win the post this month, he vowed to secure political consensus and “reach across the aisle”.
MPs proclaimed Parliament had “taken back control” of the Brexit process after they defeated the Government to ensure a “meaningful vote” on the withdrawal deal.
The Prime Minister will hope it does not damage the confidence of EU leaders in her authority to conduct negotiations as they prepare to rubber-stamp a move forward to trade talks.
She could face questions about the vote’s implications at a dinner with the other 27 EU leaders today, who she will urge to begin trade talks as quickly as possible.
The European Commission’s assessment that “sufficient progress” has been made on divorce issues to move Brexit negotiations on to their second phase gave the PM a huge boost just last week.
And the EU27 are expected to green-light phase two when they meet in Mrs May’s absence on the second day of their two-day summit in Brussels tomorrow.