Μake us preferred on Google Eurozone governments have until November 6, 2026, to put forward candidates to succeed Christine Lagarde as president of the European Central Bank (ECB), following a request from Eurogroup President Kyriakos Pierrakakis.
A spokesperson for the Eurogroup, which brings together the finance ministers of the 21 countries that use the euro, confirmed that Pierrakakis had asked member states to submit their nominations by Friday.
Finance ministers are expected to review the proposed candidates at the Eurogroup meeting on November 9.
The selection process is also expected to advance during a meeting of European leaders in Brussels on November 26–27. An informal gathering of leaders is scheduled to take place approximately two weeks earlier.
Lagarde to leave ECB presidency in February
Lagarde announced last Thursday that she would step down on February 7, 2027, around nine months before the scheduled end of her term.
Among the names reported as potential candidates so far are Pablo Hernández de Cos, the former governor of the Bank of Spain and current head of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), and Klaas Knot, the former governor of the Dutch central bank, according to Bloomberg.
Wider changes ahead for ECB leadership
The search for Lagarde’s successor is part of a broader reshuffle of the ECB’s Executive Board, with three of its six positions expected to change hands.
Isabel Schnabel, who oversees the bank’s markets portfolio, is due to leave in early January, about a year before the end of her eight-year term. The Eurogroup has extended the deadline for nominations to replace her until November 27.
Meanwhile, the term of ECB Chief Economist Philip R. Lane ends in May, and the process to find his successor is already underway.
