For the EU, replacing Lagarde at the IMF by the European Parliament is a priority.

Nadia Calviño, Minister of the Spanish Economy, said that for Spain and the rest of the EU, it is "a priority" that Lagarde's replacement "be a European"although he felt that it is 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 that the Director General of the IMF remains European," he said when he arrived at the meeting of finance ministers and Economy. Eurozone finance in Brussels.

In turn, an official from the European Commission (EU executive) told international agencies, under the guise of anonymity, that "there is a strong impetus among European countries to come with a candidate "for the post of minister in the Belgian capital.

He also said that the president of the Eurogroup, Mario Centeno, was among the people who worked on this issue, alongside the representatives of Finland, who currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU.

The same source said that the election of a "European" at the head of the Monetary Fund could exclude British candidates, given that the UK is leaving the EU at the end of 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.

"It is that we have not started discussions, even informal, with which I think it is premature to think about these issues," replied the Minister of Economy of l & # 39; Spain.

"EU countries are eager to present a candidate," said Efe and other international agencies.

The IMF has not officially opened the procedure for replacing Lagarde, who is leaving the post of general manager to be appointed in the place of the Italian director. Mario Draghi to the presidency of the European Central Bank from 1 November.

However, it is foreseeable that ministers will discuss the issue informally at the meetings they will hold until tomorrow Tuesday in Brussels. Other sources pointed out that "there is no reason why Europeans do not retain the IMF presidency if they have a good candidate".

Since the Bretton Woods Agreements (US, 1944) on the creation of the IMF and the World Bank, called "twin entities" at the time, it is a tradition rarely forgotten that a European heads the agency and an American to the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Development, the original name of the other.

Last April, the American David Malpbad He was elected to head the World Bank.

Unlike other appointments, the election of Lagarde as 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 elected.

Lagarde's second term in the Monetary Fund front ended in 2021.

The Governor of the Bank of England, the Canadian Mark Carney, has been mentioned in the media as a possible candidate from Europe to replace Lagarde at the IMF, although this is an exception to the tradition.

Carney, who was Governor of the Bank of Canada, has British and Irish pbadports in addition to his Canadian citizenship.