European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager speaks during a press conference in Brussels on June 14, 2023 (AFP/John THYS)
European Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders will temporarily replace Margrethe Vestager in Competition within the European executive, the Danish official taking unpaid leave to apply for the presidency of the European Investment Bank (EIB).
If her candidacy to head the EU funding institution fails, Ms Vestager may decide to return to her duties in Brussels.
“I am officially a candidate for the presidency of the EIB”, indicated Ms Vestager on X (new name of Twitter).
The Commission specified shortly after that Mr Reynders would inherit, during this “temporary withdrawal”, the competition portfolio.
Denmark’s Margrethe Vestager is a European Commission heavyweight. She is known for imposing record fines on Google and defying Paris and Berlin by banning the merger of rail manufacturers Alstom and Siemens.
She is a candidate to replace the current president of the EIB, the German Werner Hoyer, aged 71, who is completing his second six-year term.
Spanish Economy Minister Nadia Calvino, who announced her candidacy in August, appears to be her main rival.
The nomination falls to EU Economy and Finance Ministers who could agree on a name at their next meeting on September 16 in Santiago de Compostela (Spain).
The EIB, whose shareholders are the Member States of the European Union, is the EU’s long-term financing institution. It claims to have invested since its creation in 1958 more than 1,000 billion euros in the climate and the environment, social cohesion, innovation or support for SMEs.
© 2023 AFP
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