Brussels, 01/02/2012 (Agence Europe) - The MEP Sharon Bowles (ALDE, UK) has expressed her dismay at the fact that European intentions regarding gender equality are not applied at institutional level. Bowles, who is also the chair of the committee on economic and monetary affairs of the European Parliament, has pointed her finger at the European Central Bank (ECB), which has had no women at all in any high-level posts since the departure in May 2011 of Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell, the only woman among the 23 members of the Board: “The ECB is one of the EU institutions where gender balance is most blatantly disregarded. I find this disappointing and discouraging. One has to ask why important and influential EU bodies such as the ECB systematically fail to select female candidates.” With Spain's José Manuel Gonzalez-Paramo soon to leave the Board, Bowles calls on the ECB to give a woman a chance, stressing that “the argument that there are no qualified women for these positions cannot be taken seriously”. At this stage, however, three men have been put forward to take the seat which will be left empty in May (Luxembourg's Yves Mersch, the Spaniard Antonio Sainz de Vicuña and the Slovenian Mitja Gaspari, according to news agency Agence France Presse). (MD/transl.fl)