Posted Sep 30, 2022 5:55 PMUpdated on Sep 30, 2022 at 6:02 p.m.
It is a soap opera that has already had many twists and turns and continues to hold European circles in suspense: the succession of Klaus Regling at the head of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), the “European IMF” created in 2012 to ensure the euro area stability. The term of the German, in office for ten years, expires on October 7 and, in all likelihood, the finance ministers of the nineteen Member States of the euro zone will not be able to appoint a new director during the Eurogroup meeting, Monday 3 October in Luxembourg.
On September 20, we had to face the facts: neither of the two finalists in the selection process, the Portuguese Joao Leao and the Luxembourger Pierre Gramegna, would manage to collect on their behalf the 80% of the voting rights required by the statutes of the MES to become general manager. Berlin, which has a right of veto, refused to support the Portuguese socialist and Rome, which had presented a compatriot as a candidate in the spring, blocked the Luxembourg liberal for its part. We were at an impasse.
