The European Union begins negotiating the replacement of Christine Lagarde at the head of the IMF

The European Union seeks to determine who will replace French Christine Lagarde at the head of the International Monetary Fund, who resigned "temporarily" from his headquarters as chief executive until the definition of the election process of the new president of the European Central Bank. Eurozone officials have claimed that the "priority" is that the new leader of the financial institution is from that region.

Last week, European leaders formalized Lagarde's candidacy for the next president of the ECB. Immediately, she claimed to be very "honored" with this opportunity. American David Lipton has been appointed acting director of the IMF for the coming months. In Europe, meanwhile, began the discussion by succession on a chair that the Old Continent considers as his own.

The Minister of the Spanish Economy, Nadia Calviño, has estimated that for Spain and the rest of the EU, it is "priority" that the Lagarde substitute "to be a European"Although he said it was too early to talk about candidates to replace him." From the Spanish point of view, and I think that, from the point of view of all the Member States, the priority is for the Managing Director of the IMF to remain a European company. ", he said when he arrived at the meeting of finance ministers and the economy of the euro area (Eurogroup) in Brussels.

In turn, an official from the European Commission told international agencies that "European countries have a strong incentive to come with a candidate"At the ministerial meeting in the Belgian capital, he also said that the president of the Eurogroup, Mario Centeno, was one of the people working on this topic, along with the representatives of Finland, who currently holds the presidency rotating of the EU.

The same source said that the election of a "European" at the head of the Monetary Fund could exclude the British, given that the UK is leaving the EU in late October. Calviño was asked if she looked like a candidate for the job. The Spanish minister said that it was "premature" to talk about it even though she avoided firing for this race.

The IMF has not officially opened the procedure for replacing Ms Lagarde, who left the post of Director General when she was appointed to replace the Italian Mario Draghi as President of the ECB at from November 1st.

However, it is foreseeable that Ministers will discuss the issue informally at meetings they will have until Tuesday in Brussels. Other sources quoted by international agencies pointed out that "Europeans have no reason not to badume the presidency IMF if they have a good candidate. "

Since the 1944 Bretton Woods Accords, which led to the creation of the IMF and the World Bank, there has rarely been a break in the tradition that a European runs the money agency and an American goes to the bank. Unlike other appointments, the election of Lagarde at the head of the ECB does not require the approval of the European Parliament, whose role in the process is limited to issuing a non-binding opinion on the chosen one.

In the last days appeared names that could occupy the chair leaving Lagarde. The Governor of the Bank of England, the Canadian Mark Carney, has been mentioned in international newspapers as possible European candidatealthough it would be an exception to tradition. Carney, who was Governor of the Bank of Canada, has British and Irish pbadports in addition to his Canadian citizenship.

In parallel, the former British Minister of the Economy, George Osborne, he's self-appointed for the position and risked getting support from Europe, the United States and China, according to the published English newspaper Financial Times. The former head of the economy led by David Cameron is confident of getting support from Boris Johnson if he is elected later this month to head the Conservative Party and the British prime minister.