This Monday, eurozone finance ministers again failed to agree on the appointment of the executive director of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), from which former Minister of Guardianship Joao Leau is running.
The vote was taken at an extraordinary meeting of the ESM Governing Council after the Eurogroup meeting in Brussels, but according to a European source, “none of the two remaining candidates [além de Leão, o outro candidato era o ex-ministro das Finanças luxemburguês Pierre Gramegna] received 80% of the required votes.
“Therefore, the MEE Board of Governors will return to this issue in September,” said the same source associated with the process.
Voting is by qualified majority, which means that the elected person receives 80% of the votes cast, and the voting rights are equal to the number of shares per each ESM member country in the authorized capital.
Italy today withdrew its candidate for the post of MEE chief executive Marco Buti, the European Commissioner’s chief of staff, and began supporting the Portuguese candidate at the expense of another candidate, the former Luxembourg finance minister. Pierre Gramegna.
One of these names will replace current MEE chief executive Klaus Regling, who ends his second term at MEE on October 7th, with his successor due to take office on the 8th.
At the end of June, at the annual meeting of the ESM Governing Council in Luxembourg, eurozone finance ministers could not agree on a name.
In order for a candidate to be elected as the executive director of the mechanism, he must have the support of at least 80% of the votes of the ECM members.
Portugal, for example, has a voting power of about 2.5% compared to Germany (26.9%) and France (20.2%), the latter having more voting power and veto power.
The Executive Director of the IEA is responsible for running the mechanism, acting as the legal representative of the organization and chairing the Board of Directors for a term of five years, renewable once only.
Based in Luxembourg, the MEE is an intergovernmental organization established by eurozone member states to prevent and resolve financial crises and maintain financial stability and long-term prosperity, providing loans and other forms of financial assistance to countries in severe financial difficulty.
In the previous government, João Leão took over the finance portfolio after serving as Secretary of State for Budget from 2015 to 2019 and is currently Vice-Chancellor of ISCTE.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
