Eurogroup finance ministers on Monday again failed to agree on naming the successor for Klaus Regling as chief of the European Stability Mechanism even after Italy withdrew the candidacy of European Commission official Marco Buti.
Neither the Luxembourg nor Portuguese candidate managed to win the required 80 percent majority in the vote that followed Italy’s withdrawal. Eurogroup president Paschal Donohoe said that the next vote now will take place in September. Regling is set to retire in October.
As a result, the race for the top job at the Luxembourg-based ESM has become a direct standoff between former Portuguese finance minister Joao Leao and former Luxembourg finance minister Pierre Gramegna.
Leao has been credited with a successful turnaround of his country’s finances, resulting in a government budget surplus at the end of his 22-month tenure as finance minister in March.
Gramegna, as a career diplomat, served as Luxembourg’s finance minister for almost a decade. He ran twice earlier as a candidate to head the group of Eurozone finance ministers but was not successful both times.