On Thursday 11 June, the Eurogroup initiated the procedure leading to the election, probably on 9 July, of a replacement for Mário Centeno as head of the informal body of euro area finance ministers for a two-and-a-half year term.
The candidate ministers - Spain's Nadia Calvinó, Luxembourg's Pierre Gramegna and Ireland's Paschal Donohoe - have until Thursday 25 June to officially apply.
“Candidates have to be ministers responsible for finance. The president is elected by a simple majority”, noted Mr Centeno, who, although he will remain president of the Eurogroup until 12 July, will not vote, since he will have been replaced as Finance Minister of his country by the current Portuguese Secretary of State for the Budget, João Leão (see EUROPE 12502/16). Welcoming the fact that the Eurogroup was playing its role as a “firefighter” during the economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, he felt that many of his counterparts had the “quality” to replace him.
The Spanish minister, Nadia Calviño, would be the favourite to replace him and become the first woman to hold the post. This solution would make it possible to maintain the political and geographical balance of the high European offices, although the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, is also Spanish.
“We are going to analyse in the next few days what the options are and the Prime Minister will make the appropriate decision, taking into account the general interest and what is best for Spain”, the minister told the Spanish press on Thursday. The fact that her name is being mentioned in the race for the Eurogroup presidency is due, according to her, to the “key role” played by her country in the emergency decisions taken to combat the coronavirus. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)