Eurogroup backs no candidate for ECB and expects decision by end of year

Eurozone finance ministers on Monday, November 9, officially discussed for the first time the race to succeed Christine Lagarde at the European Central Bank.

In Brussels they were presented with the candidates — Dutchman Klaas Knot and Spaniard Pablo Hernández de Cos — but the ministers did not back either of them. The publication reports this.

Eurogroup President Kyriakos Pierrakakis said the goal is to settle the matter by the end of the year.

“We expect the whole process to be completed by the end of the year,” he told journalists.

The timetable is tight. Lagarde will leave the post on February 7, nine months before the end of her term, and two more seats on the six-member ECB Executive Board will become vacant in the coming months. After the meeting, Pierrakakis noted that it “makes sense” for leaders to settle the issue for all three positions at once, and that a final decision by the end of the year would be “optimal.”

A package deal for leaders

Besides the presidency, leaders must find a replacement for Isabel Schnabel, who is responsible for market operations at the ECB and leaves on January 3, 2027, as well as for chief economist Philip Lane, whose term expires in May 2027.

According to officials, the largest eurozone countries — France, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands — will most likely discuss all three positions as a single package. Now that the candidacies have been noted, the matter moves to the level of leaders, who expect to make a decision in December. Pierrakakis called the appointment a “political process” handled by EU leaders, and was due later on Monday to meet European Council President António Costa.

Irish Finance Minister Simon Harris, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, said Ireland has no plans to nominate anyone for the vacant posts, including Lane’s seat.

Two candidates

Spanish Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo called Hernández de Cos — the former head of the Bank of Spain who now heads the Bank for International Settlements — a “reliable person” who “knows the ECB from the inside.” Dutch Finance Minister Eelco Heinen called Knot, the former head of the Dutch central bank, an “excellent candidate.” According to Heinen, the choice should be based on merit, and he warned against presenting it as a north-versus-south contest or as an opportunity to trade favors on issues such as the EU’s multiannual budget.

Politics and timing

An informal meeting of leaders will take place in Dublin on Friday, November 13, and the next one in Brussels on November 26–27. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez will not go to Dublin, and, as the newspaper ABC reported, this could hurt Hernández de Cos’s chances.

In addition, elections will be held in Spain on November 29, and their outcome could change the political balance of forces in the race for the post. Cuerpo said he is “optimistic” and does not rule out reaching an agreement as early as this month.