Nadia Calviño is the candidate with the most support to preside over the European Investment Bank (EIB). This is the conclusion reached by the Belgian Minister of Finance, Vincent Van Peteghem, responsible for the selection process, and this will be communicated to the Economy Ministers of the Twenty-seven on Friday morning, as La Vanguardia has been able to confirm to through diplomatic sources. The position, more coveted than ever, will become vacant on January 1 and the Government of Pedro Sánchez decided to play hard for it by presenting the candidacy of the vice president last July.
The silence procedure launched last week by Van Peteghem to resolve the blockage that this high-level selection process has faced has concluded and the conclusion is that Calviño meets the necessary criteria to win the position. That is, it has the support of a majority of countries and, at the same time, they represent more than 68% of the EIB’s capital. In his letter to the ministers, Van Peteghem informed the Twenty-Seven that the Spanish woman had the best chance of winning the position (thus ahead of the Danish Margrethe Vestager, her toughest contender) and encouraged the delegations to withdraw their candidates. Not all have done so, diplomatic sources point out; Italy, for example, has presented reservations. But the conclusion of Belgium, which occupies the rotating presidency of the financial institution based in Luxembourg, is that Calviño is the winner and the minister will communicate this on Friday to his colleagues during the working breakfast they will hold in Brussels, immediately before of the Ecofin meeting in which the Spanish presidency of the Council intends to reach an agreement on the reform of fiscal rules.
The imminent departure of Calviño from the Government – the current president of the EIB, the German Werner Hoyer, is retiring on December 31 – will force an internal remodeling of the Government at the level of the vice-presidencies. The president of the executive, Pedro Sánchez, said a few days ago on Cadena Ser that it will be a “huge loss in personal terms, not just political ones” and he announced that after a transition period he will make public who is the person chosen to take over.
