Spain and Netherlands name candidates to succeed Lagarde as ECB president

Spain and the Netherlands on Friday formally submitted candidates to succeed Christine Lagarde, who steps down as president of the European Central Bank (ECB) on February 7.

Spain's candidate is Pablo Hernández de Cos, a former governor of Spain's central bank. The Netherlands' candidate is Klaas Knot, a former president of the Dutch central bank.

The two were the only candidates to emerge after the 5 p.m. deadline, as had been expected.

Their candidacies are part of a larger negotiation among Europe's four economic powerhouses — France, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands — over how to secure their seats on the ECB's executive board.

The ECB is one of the most powerful institutions in Europe, responsible for setting interest rates to keep prices stable at 2 percent over the medium term. Its six-person executive board oversees the central bank's day-to-day activities.

German economist Isabel Schnabel will vacate her board seat on January 3, when she leaves the ECB for a job at the International Monetary Fund. Berlin is determined to hold onto that seat.

Paris, meanwhile, is targeting the ECB's chief economist role, once the Irish incumbent Philip Lane concludes his eight-year term on May 31.

Eurozone finance ministers will take stock of the ECB reshuffle at Monday's Eurogroup meeting in Brussels. Neither Hernández de Cos nor Knot is scheduled to attend the closed-door meeting, but their national ministers will talk up their respective compatriots.

Diplomats expect EU leaders to engage in horse trading at an informal summit in Dublin at the end of next week. The deadline for candidates to replace Schnabel is November 27.