Bulgaria's Georgieva emerges as EU's candidate for IMF head
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union sates picked Bulgaria’s Kristalina Georgieva as the bloc’s candidate to lead the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after more than 12 hours of talks on Friday that highlighted the EU’s internal divisions.
The 65-year-old chief executive of the World Bank got the backing of a majority of the 28 EU states, defeating the Dutch candidate Jeroen Dijsselbloem after two rounds of voting and prolonged negotiations among EU nations.
“Congratulations Georgieva for being selected as European candidate to lead the IMF. In the face on rising global tensions, it is imperative to uphold the IMF as symbol of multilateralism,” said the chair of euro zone finance ministers, Mario Centeno.
Georgieva is a centre-right politician who grew up in Bulgaria under communism before a career that brought her to the top of the World Bank and the European Commission.
Most EU states backed Georgieva even though her candidacy will force a change in IMF rules that require the managing director to be younger than 65 years old. The need for that change could weaken the European candidate if a sufficiently large number of IMF member states opposed the reform.
However, a European official said support from EU countries and the Unites States would be enough to overhaul the rules in the global fund that has historically been dominated by the Western bloc.
The source added that France, who is leading the European selection process, had already secured Washington’s support on this.
The top job at the Washington-based world lender has always been filled by a European. The former IMF chief, France’s Christine Lagarde, resigned in July after EU leaders chose her to replace Mario Draghi as European Central Bank president.
“Great news and well deserved,” said World Bank President David Malpass in an emailed statement to Reuters. Georgieva “brings strong leadership and deep country knowledge,” he added.