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Two candidates have been put forward to replace Christine Lagarde at the helm of the European Central Bank, an EU official said on Friday, as EU leaders gathered in Dublin for an informal summit.
Spanish daily El País also reported that France and Germany were finalising a deal on the central bank’s top jobs, with Spain’s Pablo Hernández de Cos as the favourite to become the next president.
The official did not name the two candidates, but as Euronews previously reported, the contenders are Pablo Hernández de Cos and former Dutch central bank chief Klaas Knot.
The Eurogroup confirmed both nominations last week.
European Council President António Costa updated leaders on Friday morning and aims to begin consulting the European Parliament and the ECB’s Governing Council at the EU summit on 26 November, the official said.
A new deadline of 18 November has been set for nominations to fill the other two vacancies on the central bank’s six-member Executive Board, which runs the ECB day to day. The posts are chief economist and head of market operations, both significant roles in the leadership.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron are currently in “intensive” talks to negotiate the candidates.
In Dublin, Merz told reporters that agreements were in sight but not yet final, and that he needed a few more days to consult his coalition partners before presenting Germany’s proposal next week.
Who gets what
France leans towards Hernández de Cos, a former Bank of Spain governor whose more moderate stance on monetary policy suits a country under fiscal strain, El País reported.
He would be the first Spanish economist to lead the ECB.
Spain’s Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo told Euronews on Monday that Hernández de Cos’ expertise and ability to build consensus made him an ideal candidate.
The proposed deal would give Berlin the chief economist post and Paris the seat of Germany’s Isabel Schnabel, who is in charge of market operations, German business daily Handelsblatt reported.
Merz’s office wants Princeton University economist Markus Brunnermeier for the role, which is seen as the ECB’s second most important job, the newspaper reported.
He would be the first German chief economist since Jürgen Stark left at the end of 2011, replacing Ireland’s Philip Lane, whose term ends in May.
If Knot won the presidency instead, France would take the chief economist post and Germany would keep the market operations portfolio, Handelsblatt added.
Either way, a Franco-German deal would probably mean both posts would go to the eurozone’s two biggest economies.
A German government spokesperson said Berlin wanted “adequate” representation in the ECB’s leadership and expected a deal by the end of the year.
A vacancy in Basel
Picking Hernández de Cos would also free up the top job at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), where he has been general manager since 1 July 2025.
Owned by central banks around the world and based in Basel, Switzerland, the BIS is often called the “central bank of central banks”.
His departure would create another senior vacancy, and the BIS Board of Directors would choose his successor.
With Schnabel due to leave the ECB on 3 January for a role at the IMF, three of the Executive Board’s six members are due to leave in less than five months.
Governments are therefore negotiating the posts as a package.