The Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs held a detailed informal exchange of views with the two candidates for Vice-President of the European Central Bank this Wednesday evening. The European Parliament has now informally forwarded its assessment of the two candidates to the Council of member states. The Council will now select one candidate and propose it to Parliament. Parliament will then hold a formal hearing on 26 February. Afterwards the plenary of the European Parliament votes on the candidate. The vote of the plenary is not binding, but influential.
Sven Giegold, spokesperson for economic and financial affairs for the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament, comments on this:
„Irishman Philipp Lane is clearly the better candidate. He gave convincing answers to all question of the Parliament. Lane has shown himself to be a distinguished and proven economist, De Guindos, on the other hand, as a politician who would like to be a top job at the ECB.
It is poor show that no Member State has proposed a woman. It is hopelessly antiquted that no woman has ever been president or vice-president of the ECB. For us Greens, it remains unacceptable that the Member States have ignored Parliament’s demand to propose female candidates.
Luis de Guindos is also a threat to the independence of the ECB. As a long-standing member of the Eurogroup de Guindos cannot carry out the new office independently.“
The statement of Roberto Gualtieri, Chairman of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs: