Of the four official candidates, three personalities - Italy’s Marco Buti, Luxembourg’s Pierre Gramegna and Portugal’s João Leão - are still in the running to head the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), the euro area’s bailout fund, to replace Klaus Regling whose second five-year term expires in October (see EUROPE B12943A22).
After a presentation of the candidacies, we held an indicative vote at the end of which “the Netherlands have decided to withdraw their candidacy”, said...