EU governments yesterday would try to choose the bloc’s candidate to lead the IMF from a list of four names, a spokeswoman for the French Ministry for the Economy and Finance said, but divisions could delay a compromise solution.
Britain opposed the plan to select a candidate, saying it was “premature” and did not allow London enough time to propose one of its own, according to a confidential note seen by reporters.
Candidates for the head of the Washington-based IMF can be fielded until Sept. 6. French Minister of Finance Bruno Le Maire is leading the process to select a European candidate.
The shortlist comprises Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch former head of eurozone finance ministers; Spanish Minister of Economy and Enterprise Nadia Calvino; Bank of Finland Governor Olli Rehn; and Bulgaria’s World Bank chief executive Kristalina Georgieva.
The top job at the world lender has historically been filled by a European, but possible candidates from other global powers and emerging countries could gain traction if Europe split.
Former IMF managing director, France’s Christine Lagarde, resigned last month after EU leaders chose her to replace Mario Draghi as European Central Bank president.
EU governments remain split, with northern European countries preferring Dijsselbloem or Rehn, southern states pushing for Calvino and Eastern nations preferring Georgieva, one European official said.
Since an informal compromise was impossible, France decided to push for a vote. The candidate who obtains 55 percent of the votes of the 28 EU states, representing at least 65 percent of the bloc’s population, would be selected.
After a first ballot, one or more candidates could be ruled out if nobody reached the required majority. New rounds of voting would then be necessary.
“It is a mathematical possibility that no-one will make it today, but I think at the end of the day after a lot of arm-twisting they will come up with one,” one official involved in the process said.
Mario Centeno, the Portuguese chairman of euro zone finance ministers, on Thursday said that he was pulling out of the race “in this stage of the process,” adding that he would be available if needed for a compromise solution.
Britain did not field a candidate, because it could not come up with a name on time, London said in a note sent to France, as the new British government led by Prime Minister Boris Johnson was formed only last week.
Le Maire on Thursday extended by a few hours the deadline to field a candidate before yesterday’s vote to allow the UK to propose one.
“Even if it had been possible for us to confirm a UK candidate in the time frame proposed, we don’t believe there would have been time for reasonable consideration of that candidate,” a representative for the British government said in a note sent to Paris late on Thursday.
In the note, the British envoy called for a postponement of the decision until the beginning of next month.
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