Brussels, 04/02/2003 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced that it had forwarded a recommendation to the EU Council with a view to amending the voting system within the Governing Council for an enlarged 27-member Europe (see also EUROPE of 21 December 2002). As planned, it awaited the entry into force of the Treaty of Nice before proposing these amendments. After having received the opinion of the Commission and of Parliament, the Council will unanimously decide on an adjustment of the voting modalities in the Governing Council. The agreed amendment will then be recommended to the Member States for ratification.
The Governing Council is currently composed of six members of the Executive Board and, at most, fifteen governors of the national central banks. In order to be able to continue taking rapid and effective decisions, it decided that, in future, the number of national central bank governors exercising a right of vote should not exceed fifteen. Thus, when, after enlargement, there are more than fifteen governors of national central banks, the governors will exercise their right of vote according to a rotating system. The system is conceived so that governors of the national banks with voting right represent countries which, considered globally, represent the whole euro-zone economy. Governors will therefore use their voting right at different rates depending on an indicator of the relative size of the economy of their country within the zone.
On the basis of this indicator, in an EU of 27, governments would be spread into several groups: the first, which would have five votes, would comprise the central bankers of the first five countries; - the second would comprise a maximum of 14 countries and have eight votes; the last group would have three votes. The central bankers of each of these groups would be able to exercise their voting right in turn, for a same period of time. Thus, for the central bankers of the first group, the frequency of the vote would be 80%. In the second group this rate would be 57% and in the third 38%.
The system of a three-group rotation will be implemented when the euro zone comprises 22 countries. In the meantime (between 16 and 21 Member States), the system would only comprise two groups. The first would still be made up of five countries and have four votes, the second would bring together the remainder of the Member States, with eleven votes.