Two other seats of the ECB’s executive board will also need to be filled next year, as Isabel Schnabel is joining the IMF in January and the central bank’s chief economist, Philip Lane, is set to end his term in May.
At their next gathering on Nov. 9, eurozone finance ministers will discuss the candidates and the process to fill all three open posts of the ECB executive board, an EU official told POLITICO.
However, the ultimate decision on the ECB President will be taken by the European Council, so heads of state and governments.
The two frontrunners to replace Lagarde are Spain’s Pablo Hernández de Cos and Dutchman Klaas Knot.
