On Friday 9 January, the new President of the Eurogroup (see EUROPE 13771/1), Kyriakos Pierrakakis, announced the names of the six candidates to succeed the current Vice-President of the European Central Bank (ECB), Luis de Guindos, whose mandate expires at the end of May (see EUROPE 13782/15).
Portugal’s Mário Centeno, Latvia’s Mārtiņš Kazāks, Estonia’s Madis Müller, Finland’s Olli Rehn, Lithuania’s Rimantas Šadžius and Croatia’s Boris Vujčić have all submitted their candidacies.
The Eurogroup will discuss these candidacies at its next meeting on Monday 19 January. Once the 21 finance ministers of the euro area countries have taken a decision by a reinforced qualified majority (support from at least 16 Member States representing at least 65% of the population), the EU Council will recommend that the European Council follow this decision.
The ECB and the European Parliament will simply be consulted.
Three other mandates on the ECB’s Executive Board, including that of the President, Christine Lagarde, will expire between now and the end of 2027. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)