Brussels, 17/05/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 17 May, EU27 finance ministers gave the nod for the governor of the Bank of Italy, Mario Draghi, to take over from Jean-Claude Trichet at the helm of the European Central Bank later this year, assenting to the Eurogroup's suggestion the day before. The appointment now needs to be endorsed by heads of state at the June 2011 European Council before being made official at the ECOFIN Council in July so that Draghi can take office on 1 November 2011.
On Monday 16 May, the Eurogroup gave unanimous backing to Mario Draghi. The Eurogroup chair, Jean-Claude Juncker, said he has an excellent international and European reputation, a central banker who has demonstrated in his career that he is a staunch defender of the euro and the European Union. Welcoming the unanimous agreement at the Eurogroup, the French economics minister, Christine Lagarde, hoped France would still have a representative on the ECB Governing Council, probably by replacing one of the Italians (Mario Draghi and Lorenzo Bini Smaghi) with a French national.
The decision to appoint Mario Draghi as the new head of the ECB was a foregone conclusion once the president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, followed by the Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, backed his candidacy (he is currently head of the IMF's Financial Stability Forum). (M.B./transl.fl)