The race of Calviño and Vestager for the presidency of the EIB begins, who will compete with 3 other candidates

The winning candidacy must gather the support of 68% of the bank's capital and at least 18 countries

BRUSELAS, 8 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The first vice president and acting minister of Economic Affairs and Digital Transition, Nadia Calviño, and the until now executive vice president of the European Commission responsible for Competition, the Danish liberal Margrethe Vestager, will compete with three other candidates from Italy, Sweden and Poland for the presidency of the European Investment Bank (EIB), after publishing the official list, which begins the race to obtain the necessary support.

Together with them, the Polish Teresa Czerwinska, the Italian Daniele Franco and the Swede Thomas Östros remain in the race, as confirmed by the Belgian Minister of Finance, Vincent Van Peteghem, in his capacity as president of the Board of Governors of the EIB.

A period of informal consultations will now begin before a successor to current president Werner Hoyer, whose position expires at the end of this year, is officially appointed.

While Vestager announced last Tuesday that she was leaving her position in the Commission to defend her candidacy, Calviño, who this Wednesday acknowledged her "strong motivation" to preside over the EIB, noted that, for the moment, she is "focused" on the vice-presidency of the EIB. Government, an "absorbing" job that will occupy "at least until December."

Now that the official list has been published, the consultation period begins and, then, the ministers will be urged to reach an agreement "as soon as possible", as community sources have explained to Europa Press.

Spain, which this semester holds the rotating presidency of the EU, plans to include in the agenda of the informal meeting of Ministers of Economy and Finance (Ecofin) on September 15 and 16 in Santiago de Compostela the discussion and voting on the candidacies, although the final decision corresponds to the Board of Governors of the EIB, which is made up of the same ministers, foreseeably in October.

Although there is no specific calendar, the same community sources have pointed out that the informal meeting in Santiago will "undoubtedly" be an "important" moment for informal negotiations and discussions, but they have stressed that it is not a "formal" term. .

The winning candidate must gather the support of 68% of the bank's capital and at least 18 member states. The participation of each Member State is distributed according to their economic weight in the EU expressed in GDP upon entry into the Union -Spain contributes 9.66%- which makes the support of the three countries essential. main economic powers of the EU: Germany, France and Italy.