Brussels, 15/05/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 14 May, eurozone finance ministers officially opened the recruitment process to appoint the head of the European Stability Mechanism bailout fund that will come on stream on 1 July 2012. The head of the Eurogroup, Jean-Claude Juncker, said that the member states had been asked to put forward candidates and the decision would be made in June. One name already put forward for this and other top finance jobs in Europe is Spain's Belén Romana García, former head of the Spanish treasury and advisor to the European Central Bank.
The ESM will have lending capacity of €500 billion and will replace the European Financial Stability Facility, which has bailed out Ireland Portugal and Greece. The EFSF director general, Klaus Regling, responsible for getting the ESM up and running said that eurozone countries still have to cough up the first instalment of €16 billion for the ESM's initial capital, and said the fund would be fully operational when the treaty establishing it has been ratified by all national parliaments. (MB/transl.fl)