Spain’s Finance Minister Nadia Calviño has announced her candidacy for the presidency of the European Investment Bank (EIB) to succeed Germany’s Werner Hoyer, whose second six-year term expires at the end of 2023.
“It is a great honour and a source of pride for our country to be able to present a strong candidature and to have a great chance, for the first time in its history, of winning the presidency of the EIB”, Ms Calviño told the press on Friday 11 August.
A former senior European official, the current President of the Ecofin Council will be competing with the European Commissioner for Competition, Margrethe Vestager, who announced her candidacy in June (see EUROPE 13205/22). Also in the running are former Italian Finance Minister Daniele Franco and, according to Politico, two vice-presidents of the EU Bank, Teresa Czerwińska of Poland and Thomas Östros of Sweden.
The European finance ministers could take their decision by qualified majority at their informal meeting to be held from 14 to 16 September in Santiago de Compostela.
Ms Calviño was an unsuccessful candidate for the presidency of the Eurogroup, losing by one vote to Ireland’s Paschal Donohoe in July 2020 (see EUROPE 12525/33, 12524/1). (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)