2023-12-08 12:33:53
The first vice president and Minister of Economy, Nadia Calviño, was elected this Friday president of the European Investment Bank (EIB). Calviño thus returns to the international sphere and manages to make up for her failures in obtaining the presidency of the Eurogroup and the International Monetary Fund. Before being appointed minister by Pedro Sánchez, Calviño had been Director General of Budget at the European Commission.
In this way, Spain achieves one more position in the European economic sphere, which is joined by the vice-presidency of the European Central Bank (ECB), which is now held by Luis de Guindos, and the presidency of the European Banking Authority, which falls to José Manuel Campa.
However, Margarita Delgado could not take over the presidency of the ECB Supervisory Board, which was interpreted as beneficial for Calviño’s candidacy due to the geographical balance in the distribution of European positions.
The European Investment Bank is the largest multilateral financial institution in the world. It is financed with the guarantees of the member states and thanks to its triple A (the highest credit rating) it mobilizes resources in the financial markets under good conditions to later be able to provide soft loans, with low interest rates, in projects of the member states.
In recent years it has become a key piece within the Next Generation EU post-pandemic funds for the double energy and digital transition. One of Calviño’s great challenges will be to continue outlining what type of infrastructure the EIB will continue to finance and whether nuclear energy or military spending can be included.
Calviño’s path to achieving this presidency has been steeper than expected, due to the doubts of the Franco-German axis who were initially going to reveal their cards in the months of September and October. This lack of definition even led to a new extension being considered for the current president of the EIB, which would have led to this election having been part of the distribution of senior positions in the community leadership after the European elections in June.
As a way to overcome this paralysis, last Thursday the Belgian Minister of Finance, Vicent Van Peteghem, sent a letter to the rest of his colleagues in support of Calviño’s candidacy against his main opponent, the Danish Margrethe Vestager, former Commissioner for Competition. .
Belgium is the country leading the negotiations to elect the successor of Werner Hoyer who will leave his post in December. Although Calviño had not obtained all the necessary support at the time, she was the candidate with the greatest possibilities.
To be the winner, the candidate needs 68% of the EIB’s capital, which is distributed according to the economic weight of each country, and the support of 18 countries. The reality is that the verdict of the Franco-German axis is usually decisive in convincing the rest of the European capitals.
During the summit of the European socialists in Malaga, the German chancellor Olaf Scholz announced to Sánchez his intentions to support Calviño after some indecisions within the government coalition, although France’s cards were not revealed until the last moment during the meeting this Friday of the Ministers of Economy and Finance of the Twenty-seven.
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