On Friday 8 December, the Spanish Finance Minister, Nadia Calviño, succeeded in rallying sufficient support from the Member States (18 countries representing 68% of the capital) to win the presidency of the European Investment Bank (EIB), a position that will be held for the first time by Spain and by a woman.
An unsuccessful candidate for the presidency of the Eurogroup in July 2020, the President-in-Office of the Ecofin Council is looking forward to chairing “the most important public bank in the world”. She gave no details of the arrangements for her departure to Luxembourg, the EIB’s headquarters, for a six-year term starting on 1 January 2024, or of her possible succession in the ‘Sánchez’ government, in which she is First Vice-President.
The announcement of Ms Calviño’s victory was first made to the finance ministers over breakfast by the Belgian Finance Minister, Vincent Van Peteghem, who is in charge of steering the informal discussions between the twenty-seven shareholder countries of the EU Bank (see EUROPE 13272/12). He felt that his Spanish counterpart had “all the qualities required” to fulfil her future mission.
While Germany’s preference for Ms Calviño (see EUROPE 13291/20) was known, France had reserved its preference until the last moment. French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire hailed Ms Calviño as “an excellent candidate who is in line with our ambitions for the EIB”, at a time when the Member States need to invest massively in the sectors of the future. It was a veiled reference to France’s wish that the EIB should also invest in nuclear projects to accelerate decarbonisation.
On Friday, the EIB set in motion the formal procedure for appointing Ms Calviño, which will culminate in a vote by the EIB’s Board of Directors, made up of European finance ministers.
“Having someone with Nadia Calviño’s breadth of experience in politics and finance in charge of our operations highlights the commitment of our shareholders (...) to ensure that at a time when Europe faces such profound challenges, the EU bank will have the leadership it needs as financing arm of the EU”, said Werner Hoyer, outgoing President of the EIB, in a statement.
The Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, welcomed on X (formerly Twitter) a decision by the EU-27 that “will strengthen Spain's presence and influence in international organisations”.
Ms Calvinõ’s most serious rival, Denmark’s Margrethe Vestager, has announced that she is withdrawing her candidacy and returning to the European Commission, where she is responsible for Competition. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)