On Monday 19 January, the finance ministers of the euro area countries elected the Governor of the Bank of Croatia, Boris Vujčić, as Vice-President of the ECB (see EUROPE 13783/15).
According to the President of the Eurogroup, Kyriakos Pierrakakis, the speed of Mr Vujčić's election testifies to the “success” and “maturity” of the decision-making process. He indicated that he would inform the Ecofin Council of the Eurogroup’s decision on Tuesday.
It will be up to the European Council to approve Mr Vujčić's final appointment, after consulting the ECB and the European Parliament.
From June, Mr Vujčić will be the first representative of a Central or Eastern European country to sit on the Executive Board of the monetary institute.
Elected by the Eurogroup by a reinforced qualified majority (support of at least 16 States representing at least 65% of the euro area population), Mr Vujčić was competing against five other candidates: the Portuguese Mário Centeno, the Latvian Mārtiņš Kazāks, the Estonian Madis Müller, the Finn Olli Rehn and the Lithuanian Rimantas Šadžius.
On Monday, three rounds of voting took place. At the end of the first round, the Estonian and Lithuanian candidates withdrew. The same applies to the Latvian and Portuguese candidates in the second round.
“The most important election is the presidency of the ECB”, said a diplomatic source, believing that ministers had voted with the election to the presidency, which will take place between now and the end of 2027, in mind.
Between now and 2027, three other appointments to the ECB’s Executive Board are planned. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)