Heinen warns against north–south divide in ECB succession contest

Dutch finance minister Eelco Heinen says he wants to avoid the contest to lead the European Central Bank becoming a divide between northern and southern Europe, as eurozone finance ministers discuss possible successors to Christine Lagarde.

Speaking before the Eurogroup meeting in Brussels, Heinen said he would not compare the candidates. He described both former Dutch central bank chief Klaas Knot and former Bank of Spain governor Pablo Hernández de Cos as Europeans, while calling Knot “an excellent candidate” with extensive national and international experience.

Spain has nominated De Cos for the post, with Knot widely seen as a rival. The choice of the next ECB president is due later; the finance ministers’ meeting is for discussing the candidates. Spain’s nomination of De Cos set the contest in motion.

Heinen also rejected the idea that the ECB presidency might be traded for commitments on other matters, such as the EU’s long-term budget. Linking policy files, he said, would make negotiations “endlessly complicated”.