Nadia María Calviño Santamaría (Spanish pronunciation:[ˈnaðjakalˈβiɲo]; born 3 October 1968) is a Spanish economist and civil servant serving as the President of the European Investment Bank since January 2024.
From June 2018 to December 2023, Calviño was part of the cabinets led by prime minister Pedro Sánchez, holding the office of Minister of Economy. During her tenure, the portfolio was renamed three times: Economy and Business from 2018 to 2020, Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation from 2020 to 2023 and Economy, Trade and Business in the last period—. Since 2020 she was also Deputy Prime Minister of Spain, first as Third Deputy Prime Minister (January 2020 to March 2021), later as Second (March–July 2021) and finally, First Deputy Prime Minister (July 2021 to December 2023).
Calviño is a member of the Senior Corps of State Economists and Trade Advisors. In the Spanish administration, she served as general director of the National Competition Commission.
From 2014 to 2018 Calviño served as Director-General for Budget, under the leadership of European Commissioner Günther Oettinger.[4] She has also worked as a professor at the Complutense University.[5]
Following the resignation of Christine Lagarde as managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2019, Calviño was one of the candidates considered by European governments as potential successor;[9] she withdrew after a first round of voting among representatives of the EU's 28 member states and the post went to Kristalina Georgieva instead.[10]
In this new stage, Calviño's powers on new technologies and digital transformation expanded, creating in her department new positions related to this affairs, such as the Secretary of State for Digitization and Artificial Intelligence.[18]
COVID-19
In early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic expanded to Europe, reaching Spain in late January. In March, Calviño announced a 200-billion-euro package to fight the economic effects of coronavirus, which included loans and guarantees to self-employed and to small and medium-sized entreprises and large companies.[19]
Although Calviño initially opted for Eurobonds,[20] due to the reluctance of some European countries, she adopted a more pragmatic position and she proposed to use the European Stability Mechanism but without conditions, an option accepted by the European Council which allowed the unlocking of €500 billion funds to the most affected European states.[21][22] However, Calviño stated that neither she nor the government renounced Eurobonds and that they will continue to work on them in the medium term.[23]
In mid-April, Calviño proposed to its European counterparts a 1.5 trillion euro recovery fund, that would be financed through perpetual debt issued by the European institutions.[24][25]
Eurogroup candidacy
Calviño and Eurogroup president, Mário Centeno, in a meeting in 2019
In mid-June 2020, rumors increased about a possible candidacy of Calviño to be the next president of Eurogroup.[26] Spanish Prime Minister declared that Spain would be "very interested" on it.[27] The Spanish government officially proposed Calviño on 25 June.[28][29] Calviño quickly received the support of the majority of the opposition in the Spanish Parliament.[30]
The first European government to show support to Calviño's candidature was the German government through its chancellor, Angela Merkel, who stated that "It is no secret that there is support for Nadia Calviño's candidature in the German government." She also added that she was "pleased when women get leading political roles, and the Eurogroup has never been headed by a woman."[31] On 28 June Portuguese PM António Costa also supported Calviño.[32] On 8 July Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte publicly supported her.[33] A day later, French finance minister Bruno Le Maire did the same.[34]
Voting took place on 9 July. As no candidate obtained an absolute majority in the first round, Calviño and Donohoe (with 9 and 5 votes, respectively) went to the second round after the withdrawal of Pierre Gramegna. In the second round Donohoe won the support of the majority of finance ministers, becoming Eurogroup president (10 votes to 9).[35][36]
Bank consolidation
In early September 2020, state-controlled bank Bankia and Caixabank announced that they were very close to a deal to merge both banks. That merge would have created the biggest domestic bank in Spain, surpassing Santander and BBVA.[37]Unidas Podemos, the coalition partner of the second Sánchez government and its leader, Second Deputy Prime MinisterPablo Iglesias rejected the merger describing it as a "privatization" and criticized that Calviño never revealed to them the existence of this talks.[38]
Calviño, whose signature was more than enough to authorize the merger,[39] received the support of the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, who described the merger as something "positive" for the Spanish economy and the "territorial cohesion" since the bank would extend its influence from two to four Spanish regions.[40][41][42] Days later, Calviño described the banking consolidation as "probably inevitable" to keep the solvency and competitiveness of the banking sector in the future, but at the same time she warned that this type of operations should be carried out respecting competition and the interests of consumers and that the CNMC would be watching.[43] On 17 September 2020 the boards of both banks approved the merger.[44] The new bank, which maintains the Caixabank brand, has the Spanish government as the second largest shareholder, with 16.1% of the shares.[45] In December 2020, Calviño defended before the Congressional Economic Affairs Committee that the merger was the best option for the "social interest" since it is the one that contributes the greatest value to investors, including the State, one of the main shareholders.[46]
Apart from this merger, other mergers were negotiated that same year. On the one hand, BBVA and Sabadell broke off negotiations in November 2020 due to the impossibility of reaching an agreement.[47] On the other hand, other minor banks such as Unicaja and Liberbank reached an agreement in December 2020 to create the fifth bank in the country.[48] In March 2021, both banks approved the merger.[49]
IMFC Chair
On 7 December 2021, Calviño was proposed by the Eurogroup as the European candidate for the Presidency of the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC),[50] a position compatible with her post as minister of the Spanish government. She was elected for the post on 24 December.[51]
President of the European Investment Bank
Calviño, as President of the European Investment Bank, with Wopke Hoekstra during a visit to the European Commission in Brussels in 2024
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