Eduardo González
The first vice president of the Government and Minister of Economy, Nadia Calviño, has become the great favorite in the race for the presidency of the European Investment Bank (EIB) after obtaining decisive support from Belgium. The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has already taken it for granted.
According to official sources reported to the digital newspaper Politico, the Belgian Finance Minister and president of the EIB Board of Governors, Vincent Van Peteghem, is going to propose Calviño’s candidacy for the position to his EU counterparts. The vote will take place next Friday, December 8 during the meeting of the Ministers of Economy and Finance of the European Union (Ecofin) in Brussels. The new president will take office on January 1, replacing the German Werner Hoyer. For the Spanish vice president, this candidacy was especially relevant after her failed attempts to direct the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after the departure of Christine Lagarde to the European Central Bank (ECB) and to preside over the Eurogroup.
The support of Belgium will give the Spanish vice president the majority necessary to run for office. To obtain the presidency of the EIB, the support of 68% of the bank’s capital and at least 18 Member States is required. Given that the participation of each Member State depends on its economic weight in the EU in terms of GDP, to obtain the position it is essential to have the support of the great economic powers of Europe and the main shareholders of the bank, based in Luxembourg: Germany, France and Italy. Spain has 11% of the shareholders and these three countries have 19% each.
The Italian Government had announced that it would support Calviño’s great rival, the vice president and European Commissioner for Competition, Margrethe Vestager, if its own candidate, the former Italian minister and deputy governor of the Bank of Italy, Daniele Franco, withdrew, as happened. Instead, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his support for Calviño during the recent meeting of European socialist leaders in Spain earlier this month.
For its part, France has not publicly spoken out in favor of any candidate. However, although Margrethe Vestager belongs to the same liberal political family as President Emmanuel Macron (Renew Europe), the commissioner’s decision to block the railway megamerger between the French company Alstom and the German company Siemens irritated the French president and distanced her from possible French support.
Therefore, Van Peteghem’s letter suggests that France has also decided to support the Spanish candidate. Until now, the Belgian Government had refrained from presenting a single candidate because there was no consensus between the governments, but it has finally decided to take this step after verifying that the Spanish minister, after consulting with the Member States, is the only candidate for the presidency of the EIB with sufficient support to achieve that consensus.
Meanwhile, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, took Calviño’s victory for granted yesterday. “Personally, it will be difficult for me, because she is one of my closest collaborators” and because she “has been one of the best ministers of Economy in this country,” he declared yesterday during an interview on TVE. Regarding the person who will replace Calviño, the chief executive limited himself to saying that he has “some idea”, without further details.
The EIB, founded in 1958 after the entry into force of the Treaty of Rome that established the European Economic Community (EEC), constitutes the main financial arm of the EU and is one of the largest development entities worldwide. If her victory is finally confirmed, Calviño will become the first woman to head the entity since its founding (Vestager would also have been, in any case).
