Brussels, 27/09/2012 (Agence Europe) - There is still an empty seat on the European Central Bank's (ECB) Executive Board and the president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, has told the European Parliament that no women have been put forward as candidates for the job.
On Wednesday 26 September, the Parliament's economic and monetary committee confirmed again its suspension of the rubber-stamping hearing of Bank of Luxembourg head Yves Mersch, which would normally have given the go-ahead for him to take up the ECB post. The reason for suspending the hearing is the fact that there are no women in top jobs at the bank. The committee regretted the fact that no women had been put forward as candidates for the Executive Board post, and in a laconic email last week to the Martin Schultz, president of the European Parliament, Van Rompuy confirmed that no women had been put forward as candidates by the member states and he wanted to draw member states' attention, when putting forward candidates, that it would be good to find qualified women in the future both for this particular position and for others. In a Brussels Financial Times blog, MEP Sylvie Goulard (ALDE, France) said Van Rompuy's email was “empty (and quite insulting).” Meanwhile, Mersch is being asked to be patient and the ECB Executive Board is still lacking its ninth member. (MD/transl.fl)