COPENHAGEN, Denmark — The European Union’s powerful antitrust chief has withdrawn as a candidate for the presidency of the European Investment Bank, the Danish government said Friday after EU finance ministers gave their support to someone else.
Margrethe Vestager, who took unpaid leave in September to pursue the bank job, plans to return to her role at the EU’s executive commission for a few months, the government in Copenhagen said. The new president of the EIB, the 27-nation bloc’s development bank, is set to begin a six-year term on Jan. 1.
“Out of respect for the further process, the government, together with Margrethe Vestager, has decided to withdraw the Danish candidature,” Denmark’s government said.
EU finance ministers agreed Friday to back Spain’s economy minister, Nadia Calviño, becoming the bank’s next president. Calviño, 55, said that under her leadership, the bank “will have an even more important role going forward to fund the green transition, to provide financial support to the rebuilding of Ukraine, and also support the role of Europe in the world.”
She would succeed Werner Hoyer, a German whose second mandate as EIB chief ends Dec. 31. Her candidacy still requires approval from the bank’s board of directors and board of governors.
Calviño worked for the European Commission for two years until 2018, when Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez chose her as his economy minister. She eventually because Spain’s deputy prime minister. She is credited with helping Spain weather the coronavirus pandemic and the global surge in inflation made worse by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Although we would have liked to see a different outcome, we are satisfied that there is now a clarification of the process,” Danish Business Minister Morten Bødskov said.
Vestager is arguably one of the world’s most important tech regulators. She slapped Google with
