The Eurogroup activated this Thursday the procedure to designate the substitute for Isabel Schnabel in the Executive Board of the European Central Bank (ECB) and set October 28 as the deadline for member states to register their candidacies, with the intention of addressing the election at the November meeting.
"We have set October 28 as the deadline for submitting candidacies, so that we can address the issue at our next meeting," announced the president of the Eurogroup, Kyriakos Pierrakakis, at the end of the meeting of the eurozone finance ministers in Luxembourg.
The Greek official specified that it is up to the Eurogroup to select the candidate, while the official appointment falls to the European Council, at the proposal of the EU Council and after gathering the opinion of the ECB itself and the European Parliament.
When asked whether the decision could be made at the next Eurogroup meeting, scheduled for November 9, the minister expressed his hope that the process would be concluded by then, although without offering guarantees.
"I hope that the selection takes place at the November meeting," he indicated, also emphasizing that the start of the procedure took "very little time" on the agenda this Thursday.
The president of the ministers' forum also avoided speculating on the outcome when asked again about the possibility of finalizing the transition in November. "As a politician, life has taught me not to make predictions about selection processes," he stated.
The formal launch of the process comes after the president of the ECB, Christine Lagarde, sent a request to the president of the European Council, António Costa, to initiate the procedures aimed at replacing Schnabel, who will leave her position on the Executive Board early on January 3.
Schnabel announced on September 24 her departure from the institution to become, starting January 4, 2027, the director of the Monetary and Capital Markets Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and a financial advisor to the organization.
Her departure also opens a significant phase of transitions at the top of the ECB, given that the term of the chief economist, Philip Lane, ends in June 2027, while member states are also preparing for the future succession at the head of the institution.
Spain has already expressed its goal of securing a prominent role in the Executive Committee of the ECB in this renewal process and has publicly expressed its support for the former governor of the Bank of Spain and current general director of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), Pablo Hernández de Cos, as a candidate to succeed Lagarde at the head of the ECB.