Papademos favored in ECB post race
Bank of Greece governor Lucas Papademos was dubbed the favorite for the position of vice president of the European Central Bank by the Financial Times’ German edition in a laudatory article published yesterday. FT Deutschland described Papademos as «the cosmopolitan and multi-talented one» among the 12 central bankers of the eurozone member states, adding that «due to his strong Anglo-Saxon background and his deep experience of monetary policy, both in theory and practice, the economists of the large Anglo-Saxon investment banks would salute his eventual participation in the ECB directorate (the six-member Executive Board).» Greece will officially present Papademos’s candidacy to succeed outgoing ECB Vice President Jean Noyer, of France, whose term expires on May 31, at a meeting of finance ministers in Brussels today. The meeting will recommend a candidate for approval by the leaders of EU member states, at an interim summit in Barcelona, on March 15-16. Other possible candidates include Klaus Liebscher, Austrian central bank governor, Peter Praet, Belgian central bank director, Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell, Austrian central bank deputy governor, and Yves Mersch, Luxembourg central bank president. Liebscher has said he is not «actively seeking the spot» because he would prefer to stay in Vienna. Guy Quaden, Belgian central bank governor and his Portuguese colleague, Vitor Constancio, have already ruled themselves out as candidates. France does not have a candidate because it hopes its central banker, Jean-Claude Trichet, will succeed ECB President Wim Duisenberg, when the latter retires in 2003. The other executive board members, besides Duisenberg and Noyer, are Sirkka Hamalainen, of Finland; Eugenio Domingo Solans, of Spain; Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, of Italy; and Otmar Issing, of Germany, the ECB’s chief economist. Their terms expire in 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006, respectively. All future appointees to the board will serve eight years. Last, the statist and conservative ideology is continuously gaining political ground instead of retreating.
