Statement by Eurogroup President, Paschal Donohoe, on the selection of the ESM Managing Director

On 17 March, I invited euro area member states to put forward candidates to succeed Klaus Regling whose term as Managing Director of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) will end on 7 October 2022.

The call for candidates ended today and I received the following nominations:

• Italy proposed Marco Buti;
• Luxembourg proposed Pierre Gramegna;
• The Netherlands proposed Menno Snel;
• Portugal proposed Joao Leao.

We will discuss these candidacies at our Eurogroup meeting of 23 May 2022.

The ESM Board of Governors is then expected to appoint the new Managing Director at its annual meeting on 16 June by qualified majority vote, i.e. 80% of votes cast. Voting rights are equal to the number of shares allocated to each ESM member in the authorised capital stock of the ESM.

The ESM is an intergovernmental organisation based in Luxembourg, established by euro area member states in 2012. Its mission is to enable the countries of the euro area to avoid and overcome financial crises and to maintain long-term financial stability and prosperity by providing loans and other types of financial assistance to member states that are experiencing or threatened by severe financial distress.

The Managing Director (MD) is responsible for conducting the ESM’s current business. The MD acts as the organisation’s legal representative and chairs its Board of Directors. The MD serves a term of five years, which can be renewed once.

• Explainer on the appointment process of the ESM Managing Director (ESM website)