Sánchez highlights the prestige of the new minister at a national and international level: “A convinced Europeanist and an honest professional”
The until now Secretary General of the Public Treasury and International Financing, Carlos Body, will succeed the Minister of Economy, Commerce and Business, Nadia Calviño, after her appointment as president of the European Investment Bank (EIB).
Calviño will take up his position at the head of the European Investment Bank (EIB) on January 1, 2024, so the President of the Executive, Pedro Sánchez, has decided to appoint his replacement this Friday, before the end of the year .
“I have already communicated this decision to the head of State,” said the President of the Government in an institutional statement made from Moncloa to communicate the changes in the Executive.
The new Minister of Economy, Commerce and Business rose to the position of Secretary General of the Treasury and International Financing in August 2021. In these years he has managed to reduce the net financing of the Treasury, in line with the Government’s commitment to reduce the deficit and debt/GDP ratio that, according to the latest estimates, will fall to 108.1% in 2023 and 106.3% in 2024, a drop of 19 percentage points from the maximum in 2021.
“If I had to summarize the many qualities of Nadia Calviño in two words, I would say solvency and honesty. And these same qualities have been decisive in choosing the person who, from today onwards, will be in charge of the Economy, Commerce and Business portfolio,” he highlighted. the president of the Government.
According to Sánchez, Corpus is a young professional, but of “proven competence” and a public servant with an “exemplary” career within the Administration.
The new minister will direct the Government’s economic policy and chair the Delegate Commission for Economic Affairs. In this way, he assumes responsibility for a “key” Ministry in the Government of Spain, according to the president.
“AN ECONOMIST OF ENORMOUS PRESTIGE AT A NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL LEVEL”
“An economist of enormous prestige both at the national level and in the European institutions and in the multilateral financial organizations and a deep connoisseur of Public Administration and economic policy,” underlined Pedro Sánchez, after highlighting that he is “a convinced Europeanist and a honest professional.”
He has a degree in Economics from the University of Extremadura, a PhD in Economics from the Autonomous University of Madrid and a master’s degree from the London School of Economics. He entered the Superior Corps of Commercial Technicians and State Economists by competitive examination in 2008.
Between 2008 and 2011 he was an economic analyst at the General Directorate of Macroeconomic Analysis and International Economy at the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. Between 2011 and 2014, Corpus worked as a national expert in the Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs at the European Commission.
From 2014 to 2020 he carried out his professional activity at the Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility (AIReF), first as deputy director of Public Debt and later as director of the Economic Analysis Division.
From February 2020 until his appointment as Secretary General of the Treasury, he was General Director of Macroeconomic Analysis of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, then directed by Calviño.
SÁNCHEZ HIGHLIGHTS CALVIÑO’S “EXCEPTIONAL CAREER”
Regarding the appointment of Calviño as president of the EIB, Sánchez highlighted that the “presence and influence” of Spain at the core of the European project is reinforced and adds to another as important as that of Josep Borrell as vice president of the European Commission and senior representative for Foreign Affairs and Security of the European Union.
Furthermore, he assessed that after 65 years of history always with men at the helm, the European Investment Bank will have “for the first time and finally a woman and a convinced feminist in the Presidency.”
For Sánchez, this appointment “does justice to the exceptional career” of Nadia Calviño at the head of the Government’s economic policy in a time of enormous complexity, full of unprecedented threats and challenges.
Calviño, who will succeed Werner Hoyer at the head of the EIB for the next six years, starting on January 1, was competing for the position with the former vice president of the European Commission and head of Competition, the Danish liberal Margrethe Vestager as the main rival. , but also with the Polish Teresa Czerwinska, the Italian Daniele Franco and the Swede Thomas Östros.
According to a rule established in 1958 by the Council of Governors, the president of the EIB receives the same monthly salary as the president of the European Commission, so Calviño will receive, like Ursula von der Leyen, around 375,000 euros per year. which represents a salary of more than 30,000 euros per month.
Since its founding in 1958, the Bank has had 7 presidents, all of them men and none of them Spanish. Thus, Nadia Calviño will become the first female president of the EIB, “a milestone for the institution and for Spain,” the Executive highlights.
