Spanish Luis de Guindos ends this Sunday his eight-year term as Vice President of the European Central Bank (ECB), and will be replaced by Croatian Boris Vujcic starting tomorrow Monday. Guindos was appointed number two of the ECB in 2018, which is why he left his responsibility as Minister of Economy that he held since 2011, after being part of two governments of Mariano Rajoy’s PP.
Read more Poland warns of increasing Russian provocations and urges NATO to take it seriously
In his responsibility at the ECB, he worked with Mario Draghi as president until 2019, and since then with Christine Lagarde. The Spaniard now passes the baton to Croatian Boris Vujcic, who managed to prevail in the dispute for the position over other strong contenders, such as the Portuguese Mario Centeno or the Finnish Olli Rehn. And he faces a non-renewable eight-year term.
The Eurogroup gave its support to Vujcic’s candidacy on January 19 and a week later the Council adopted a recommendation addressed to the European Council to appoint him vice president. The decision was made after consulting both the European Parliament and the ECB Governing Council. The election is made by qualified majority in the European Council and “among persons of recognized prestige and professional experience in monetary or banking matters,” as stipulated by the European treaties.
Read more Rafa Jódar comes back against Carreño and toughens up on the way to the Roland Garros quarterfinals
Vujcic has been linked to the Croatian National Bank since 1997 where he has been director of the research department, deputy governor and finally governor, a position he had held since 2012. The ECB Governing Council is made up of the president, a vice presidency, which Vujcic will occupy, and four members – Piero Cipollone, Frank Elderson, Philip Lane and Isabel Schnabel -.
The next monetary policy meeting, scheduled for June 11, will be the first of the new vice president and will take place at a time of geopolitical turmoil that is causing inflation to rise and a rate hike to be practically taken for granted. Guindos leaves his term warning of the difficult situation in which the ECB finds itself due to the combination of more inflation and less growth in the eurozone and the importance of Europe not falling into irrelevance and walking united, as he explained in an interview on Onda Cero last Thursday.