Euro zone finance ministers to nominate new ECB vice president

BRUSSELS, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Euro zone finance ministers aim to nominate on Monday a successor to European Central Bank Vice President Luis de Guindos, whose term expires at the end of May, with six candidates vying for the ?job.

The six are Portugal's Mario Centeno, Latvia's Martins Kazaks, Estonia's Madis Muller, Finland's Olli ?Rehn, Lithuania's Rimantas Sadzius and Croatia's Boris Vujcic.

The successful candidate will ?need the support of at least 16 of ?the 21 euro ?area countries, representing at least 65% of the population of the euro zone.

The ECB ?and the European Parliament will then ?be consulted before EU leaders take a final decision on the appointment at a summit in March. Neither ?institution can veto the appointment, however.

Once ?a ?new ECB vice president has been chosen, a process to replace most of the European Central Bank's executive board by the ?end of 2027 will begin, including the position of President Christine Lagarde, whose term expires at the end of October next year.

The six-person ECB board, appointed by EU leaders, has so far been dominated by men from the big four euro zone ?members - France, ?Germany, Italy and Spain. The former communist countries in the east that make up a third of the bloc ?have never held a seat.

Lagarde, a former French economy minister, is the first woman to have led the six-member board that oversees the ECB's day-to-day operations. Since its inception in 1998, women have held 19% of all ECB board member terms.

The vice president's job may be seen as the ?least important of the four upcoming seats, as those?of the chief economist, head of market operations and president must all be replaced by the end of 2027 ?as their non-renewable terms expire.

(Reporting by Jan Strupczewski; Editing by Hugh Lawson)