After long negotiations, the chief executive of the World Bank emerged as the EU candidate to succeed Christine Lagarde.
ADVERTISEMENTBulgarian Kristalina Georgieva is the European Union's candidate to succeed Christine Lagarde as head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The member states picked their candidate on Friday after two rounds of voting and prolonged negotiations. Georgieva defeated Dutch candidate Jeroen Dijsselbloem to get the backing of the 28 EU countries.
Georgieva has been chief executive of the World Bank since 2017. She also worked at the institution between 1993 and 2010, starting as an environmental economist, then rising to vice president and corporate secretary in 2008.
In between, she served as European commissioner for international cooperation, humanitarian aid and crisis response as well as the Commission's vice president for budget and human resources.
She said on Twitter that "it is an honour to be nominated" and announced that she will relinquish her responsibilities at the World Bank during the nomination period.
EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker tweeted his congratulations saying she had all the qualifications to lead the IMF.
The Washington-based IMF has 189 member countries. Since its creation in 1945, the IMF has always had a European managing director as part of an understanding with the United States, which sees an American run the World Bank.
Christine Lagarde, the former French economic minister, has been managing director of the IMF since 2011 but resigned last month following her nomination to replace Mario Draghi at the head of the European Central Bank. European lawmakers are expected to vote on her appointment in mid-September.
Georgieva emerged as the candidate after the former president of the Eurogroup Jeroen Dijsselbloem conceded.
Other world powers are expected to pick candidates by September. The IMF plans to select its new head by Oct. 4.