Brussels, 08/01/2014 (Agence Europe) - On 7 January 2014, the Council of the EU recommended that Sabine Lautenschläger be appointed to the Executive Board of the European Central Bank. She is currently vice-president of Germany's central bank, the Bundesbank, and will take over from Jörg Asmussen, who is stepping down. The recommendation will be submitted for approval to the European summit, which will decide after consulting the European Parliament and the ECB Governing Council.
Asmussen has been appointed secretary of state for labour in the new German coalition government, in which Chancellor Angela Merkel entered her third term of office. Berlin proposed 49-year-old Lautenschläger, at the end of December. She currently heads the monitoring of banks.
Asmussen was an important part of the ECB's communications policy, but Lautenschläger will provide bank supervision expertise as the ECB is preparing to act as supervisor for the 130 biggest banks in the eurozone.
In December, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble hailed Lautenschlager's “huge experience in bank supervision”.
There is nothing on paper to say that Germany has the right to a place on the ECB's executive board, but Berlin is determined to remain on the board. The six members of the ECB executive board are appointed for a non-renewable period of eight years. (LC/transl.fl)