In his position at the Eurogroup, Vijlbrief worked for a number of years together with Jeroen Dijsselbloem, when he was Minister of Finance and President of the Eurogroup, on handling the Greek and European debt crises. He also managed the two campaigns to get Dijsselbloem elected Eurogroup president. In March 2014, Vijlbrief was chosen to chair the board of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), the eurozone's emergency fund to address government debt. He had been a member of the body's board since 2011 and was also serving on its Risk Committee. That same month, Vijlbrief became a member of the board of the European economic think tank Bruegel. During the 2017 Dutch general election season, he was a co-author of D66's election program.