(Bloomberg) — Spain’s Nadia Calvino will become president of the European Investment Bank after months of haggling between nations that became one of the most competitive job tussles in years.
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“I’m sure Nadia will be a very good president,” Belgian Finance Minister Vincent Van Peteghem, who chairs the EIB’s board of governors, said in Brussels as he announced her selection.
Established at the birth of the European Union in 1958, the EIB is the funding arm of the 27-nation bloc, disbursing hundreds of billions of euros for development projects. Its goals include the climate and environment, cohesion, and small and medium-sized enterprises.
The institution will have an important role “to fund the green transition, to provide financial support for the rebuilding of Ukraine and also to support the role of Europe in the world,” Calvino told reporters.
She’ll become the lender’s first female chief. The former senior European Commission official, who has served as Spain’s economy minister since 2018, succeeds Germany’s Werner Hoyer, who is retiring after a dozen years at the helm of the Luxembourg-based institution.
As one of five EU contenders to lead the world’s biggest multilateral lender, the Spanish deputy prime minister approached the end of the race as the clear favorite after winning German support.
Even so, the need for 18 countries to back a candidate, representing at least 68% of the EIB’s share capital, left France as the kingmaker and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire confirmed that Paris backed Calvino.
The 55-year-old Spaniard’s success offers solace after the setback of losing out to Kristalina Georgieva as Europe’s choice to run the International Monetary Fund in 2019, and a year later to Ireland’s Paschal Donohoe when euro-area finance ministers selected him to chair the Eurogroup.
Harassment Claims
Calvino will arrive at an institution rocked by harassment allegations that have plagued it for years and led to dozens of court cases.
In 2021, EU lawmakers started quizzing the EIB following a Bloomberg investigation of alleged workplace harassment that described accusations of sexual harassment, bullying and discrimination at the Luxembourg-based bank, drawing on interviews with more than two dozen current and former employees.
In its annual report on the EIB this year, the European Parliament said it “expresses once more its serious concerns about allegations regarding harassment, the working environment and working conditions.”
Lawmakers recognized remedial efforts but urged the EIB “to ensure that a policy of zero-tolerance towards all types of harassment is effectively implemented, including preventive and protective measures and proper and reliable complaint and victim support mechanisms.”
The skirmish over Calvino’s appointment gives a foretaste of the bargaining for top jobs that could transpire in the wake of EU Parliament elections due in six months.
Italy, Poland, Sweden and Denmark fielded candidates for the post, and may yet seek spoils in consolation. The latter had nominated Margrethe Vestager, who will return to her heavyweight position as the EU’s competition commissioner. She had stepped away from that role to pursue the EIB job.
The outcome is a win for Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who is vying to expand his country’s influence on the European stage.
Even so, the outcome also means losing one of his closest collaborators. Calvino is considered the most business-friendly minister in the cabinet, where she repeatedly clashed with colleagues over policy — notably at the start of the pandemic.
Sanchez had called the potential of her departure “a huge loss for me personally and politically,” but he has also said that he already has an idea about who will succeed her.
–With assistance from William Horobin and Katharina Rosskopf.
(Updates with Calvino comment in fourth paragraph)
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