The deputy governor of the Bank of Spain, Margarita Delgado, has swept the German candidate Claudia Buch in the European Parliament, and has achieved parliamentary support in an important leap to become the next president of the body responsible for supervising European banks. The European Central Bank must now decide whether to nominate her for the so-called Single Supervisory Mechanism, but Delgado has received rare unanimous parliamentary support from all groups, which includes the fact that Spanish PSOE MEPs have worked to vote in her favour, PP, Citizens, Greens and Podemos.
The president of this important commission of the European Parliament, the Italian socialist Irene Tinagli, has addressed a letter to the president of the ECB, Christine Lagarde, in which she communicates her unanimous support for the Spanish candidate after hearing both in Parliament, according to THE WORLD has been able to confirm. The appearances of both to undergo the examination of the MEPs took place last Tuesday after the ECB’s request to know the parliamentary opinion on both applicants. The process now is that the ECB must decide whether to second this opinion to submit it to the EU finance ministers and the European Parliament itself, so Delgado has made considerable progress towards this international position.
The support of the Spanish government has been clear, since the spokesman for the European Socialists in the parliamentary commission is Jonás Fernández, who has been particularly active in making Delgado’s candidacy prosper. Fernández is the only Spaniard on the board of spokespersons for this commission. In addition, for the formation of opinion in their European parliamentary groups, the MEP of the PP, Isabel Benjumea, that of Ciudadanos, Eva Poptcheva, the spokesperson for Sumar, Ernest Urtasun and the MEP of Podemos, María Eugenia Rodríguez, have also contributed with unusual unanimity. Palop, among others. “We have all worked, but the credit belongs to Delgado, who has clearly shown that she was a better candidate due to her superior knowledge of banking supervision,” a Spanish parliamentary source involved in the operation assures this newspaper. According to the Politico newspaper, which has reported the news, Delgado is “capable of scolding the bench, she seems like a tough woman.”
If the ECB does not ignore the recommendation of the European Parliament, the deputy governor will replace the Italian Andrea Enria at the head of European supervision. His job is to monitor the big banks in the Eurozone and their financial health at a time when rising interest rates have caused shocks in the US and the fall of Credit Suisse in Switzerland. In both countries supervision is so far more lax than in the Eurozone.
Delgado has been deputy governor since 2018 by decision of the current first vice president, Nadia Calviño, although her profile is technical and she is considered an expert in banking supervision. Before her current position in Spain, she was deputy director general for four years in the same European organization that she now aspires to preside over. ECB Vice President Luis de Guindos has publicly supported Delgado. However, the European Parliament commission has not gone as far as declaring Buch, who is vice president of the Bundesbank, unfit, according to the sources consulted. The European Parliament reports that both candidates are valid, but that they unanimously prefer the Spanish one.
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