ECB appointments, Italy still uncertain. He is still making "the final evaluations" on which candidate to support, between Irish central banker Philip Lane and Spanish Economy Minister Luis De Guindos, in the race for the vice presidency of the ECB. This was stated by Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan as he arrived in Brussels for the two-day meeting of the Eurogroup and Ecofin.
Today's Eurogroup, which is also attended by the president of the ECB Mario Draghi, is called to examine and vote on the two candidates. A battle to the last vote is therefore looming on the successor of the Portuguese Constancio expiring in May. With the decision that the Eurogroup will take today, it is effectively opening up the succession to Mario Draghi who will resign from office at the end of 2019.
Contesting for the first of the scheduled appointments are the governor of the Irish central bank Philip Lane and precisely the Spanish economy minister, the controversial Luis de Guindos supported by the France-Germany axis. Padoan, who represents Italy, could vote for Lane in order not to support the appointment of de Giundos, the first politician to pass from the government directly to the Central Bank, a body which - it should be remembered - is characterized by its technical and independent value.
So it's not just an armchair at stake. The principle of an independent central bank has established itself in Italy since the time of the great governor Paolo Baffi. And despite the various political seasons that have followed, it has held up over the years. In France and Germany, on the other hand, the change of tunic from politics to more strictly technical and banking activity is more usual.
Lane is a former professor at Columbia University in New York, one of the most prestigious universities in America and the world, and has also taught at Trinity College Dublin. He would be in line with the profile of Mario Draghi who fought for quantitative easing despite Germany's aversion.
Competitor de Guindos is supported by Berlin as a potential "loyalty" of former Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, now president of the Bundestag. In the past he worked at Lehman Brothers. France and the Netherlands support him because the Spanish government has granted the decisive vote to transfer the banking authority to Paris and the EMA, the European drug agency, to Amsterdam, beating Milan to the wire.
It was precisely on the EMA that Italy appealed to Brussels where, however, the battle flies higher and is already projected towards the presidency of the ECB in 2019.
