Paris (AFP)
The European governments' vote to nominate their candidate for the leadership of the IMF began Friday with four contenders in contention, the Portuguese Mario Centeno having withdrawn from the race, said the French Ministry of Finance.
The four candidates are the Spanish Finance Minister Nadia Calvino, the former Eurogroup President, the Dutchman Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the governor of the Bank of Finland Olli Rehn as well as the Bulgarian Kristalina Georgieva, current N.2 of the World Bank. .
The British government, which had been granted additional time to submit a candidate at the last minute "if he wished," did not finally start the race to the succession of Christine Lagarde who takes the presidency of the European Central Bank (ECB) this autumn.
Voting is conducted according to the European rules of the qualified majority: support from 55% of the member countries, ie 16 countries, representing at least 65% of the EU population is required.
"Several rounds of voting can be organized if necessary," said Bercy.
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, who was leading the talks to appoint a European candidate before the end of July, said on Thursday that there was no consensus around a single candidate.
To prevent the conversations from continuing, Mr Mayor decided to submit the candidates to the vote of the member countries, an unprecedented procedure for the appointment of the European candidate for the General Directorate of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Since its creation in 1944, the IMF has always been led by a European while an American has always been appointed head of the World Bank.
The EU-backed candidate has until September 6 to register with the IMF, which will choose its new chief executive by October 4.
© 2019 AFP