Maystadt poised to take over as EIB president

Date: 30/09/1999

By Tim Jones

FORMER Belgian Finance Minister Philippe Maystadt will be named as president of the European Investment Bank next month once Portugal's general election is over, according to well-placed EU officials.

They say the appointment of the respected 51-year-old Christian Democrat has been put on hold to avoid forcing the Portuguese government to withdraw its candidate, Victor Constancio, in the run-up to national elections on 10 October.

Union finance ministers had originally been expected to confirm Maystadt's appointment at their informal meeting in Turku early last month. But they agreed to delay a decision to avoid antagonising Lisbon, which had already been outgunned in a fierce wrangle over whether governments should be allowed to levy reduced rates of value added tax on labour-intensive services. "Nobody wanted to rub the Portuguese's noses in it when it was easy to wait until the election," explained one EU official.

Maystadt, who was the Union's longest-serving finance minister until he stepped down last year to head his ailing francophone centre-right party, has already made it clear that he cannot begin work at the EIB until January.

When he does take office, Maystadt will be the first person from a small country to head the bank in its 41-year history. Until now, the job has traditionally been 'reserved' for one of the EU's four largest member states, with France, Germany, the UK and Italy insisting that the presidency must be rotated between them because too much of their subscribed capital was at stake. "No big country would have ever accepted this before," said an EU official, who added that they had agreed to appoint someone from outside their ranks because none of them had a "credible candidate"

British EIB President Sir Brian Unwin was due to retire earlier this year, but his job soon became a bargaining chip in a complex trade-off between key posts in the new European Commission team, the EU's High Representative for foreign policy and the secretary-generalship of NATO.

Former Belgian Finance Minister Philippe Maystadt will be named as president of the European Investment Bank in October 1999 once Portugal's general election is over, according to well-placed EU officials.