Juncker: volgend hoofd van het IMF waarschijnlijk geen Europeaan (en)
The EU's nominee to be the next head of the International Monetary Fund may be the last European in the job, the eurozone's chief Jean-Claude Juncker has suggested.
He also indicated that support for the EU candidate this time round could see developing countries being the source of future IMF leaders.
"The next director will certainly not be a European," Luxembourg's prime minister and the president of the group of eurozone finance ministers said in an interview with FT Deutschland, published on Wednesday (29 August).
He argued that the bloc's finance ministers were aware that their candidate - former French socialist finance Dominique Strauss-Kahn - "will probably be the last European to become director of the IMF in the foreseeable future."
Mr Juncker's words are in reaction to the increasingly bitter debate between the West and developing countries - including rising economic giants China, Brazil and India - about who should head the international organisation.
Until now the nomination procedure has always followed the unwritten rule that European IMF chief and an American president of the World Bank.
The rule came under the spotlight once again when the EU chose its candidate for the job in late July and then again last week when Russia unexpectedly threw in its own nominee, the Czech former central bank governor, Josef Tosovsky.
Moscow highlighted its candidate's recognised credit in reforming the Czech economy, but Mr Juncker pointed out that the French ex-finance minister is also a "well-known reformer" who would bring along his experience to improve the monetary fund.
"When Strauss-Kahn leaves the IMF one day, he will have adjusted the IMF firmly to the expectations and interests of developing countries," he said in the interview.
He went on to criticise the UK's position in the debate, saying "They have criticised the selection process and have said that we should have talked to others as well. But we did talk to others as well."
"Anglo-Saxon accusations that, by nominating Strauss-Kahn we were trying to cement the unwritten rule that Europeans provide the IMF's head, are missing the point," he added.
The Washington-based IMF provides loans and economic advice to its member states. It has been also criticised over the years for deepening economic crises in some countries through its reform ideas.