EU candidates for IMF job narrowed down to three

European negotiators rush to secure a consensus on who should succeed Lagarde

The EU has narrowed down its field of candidates to replace Christine Lagarde at the IMF to three names as European negotiators rush to secure a consensus on who should be the next managing director of the fund.

On Friday, the French finance ministry, which is leading negotiations on behalf of the EU, shortlisted five European names for the job but failed to reach a consensus on any candidate.

Of the five, Mário Centeno, Portugal’s current eurogroup chair, and Nadia Calviño, Spain’s finance minister, have now been ruled out, according to two senior officials briefed by French negotiators.

That leaves Jeroen Dijsselbloem, former Dutch finance minister; Kristalina Georgieva, Bulgarian chief executive of the World Bank; and Olli Rehn, a former Finnish EU commissioner

for the economy and current head of Finland’s central bank, still in the race.

The French finance ministry denied that a decision had been taken. “Consultations are ongoing,” said a spokesperson for Bruno Le Maire, French finance minister.

The IMF has set a deadline of early September for countries to nominate candidates. European negotiators have been spurred into action to find a replacement to replace Ms Lagarde wary that a failure to agree on a single candidate will introduce rivals for the position from large emerging markets.

European nationals have dominated the leadership of the fund as part of an informal agreement where a US national takes the helm at the World Bank. The process to select the next managing director is expected to be completed on October 4. The vacancy has provoked a flurry of backroom diplomacy in the EU, which is determined to keep its claim on the job in the face of challenges from emerging markets like India, Brazil and China.

But Europe’s negotiations have been bogged down by divisions between southern and northern eurozone countries which have objected to the next managing director coming from opposing camps. One diplomat said that France was positioning Ms Georgieva to emerge as the compromise candidate.

Ms Georgieva has been backed by France but her candidacy would require a change to an IMF rule which prevents a managing director over the age of 65 applying for the job. Despite France’s push for a change in the rules, it has been resisted by a majority of EU countries.

Mr Dijsselbloem is known to have the support of northern European capitals and Germany. He was chair of the eurogroup of finance ministers in the later stages of the eurozone crisis and emerged as an early frontrunner in the race.

Mr Rehn has a similar profile to Mr Dijsselbloem and is likely to gain the backing of northern states.