Brussels, 22/12/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 18 December, the European Central Bank decided to postpone implementation of the rotation system at the governing council, which was supposed to be set up once the Euro-zone had more than 15 members (1 January next). The ECB will only introduce the rotation system when the number of governors and presidents of the Euro area national central banks exceeds 18. This decision is based on Article 10.2 of the Statute of the European System of Central Banks, as amended on 21 March 2003 by the Council of the EU, which established the principles of the new rotation system for the governing council. (the article also include the possibility of postponing the rotations system until the number of governors reaches 19).
At the same time, the council of governors has decided on the main aspects for implementing the rotation system and has opted for the following model: governors will rotate in and out of the voting right after one month (without affecting the voting rights of the six governing council members). The number of governors rotating will be determined by the difference between the number of governors and the number of votes allocated to each group minus two, taking the absolute value in case of a negative number. This rotation model achieves short periods without vote for individual governors combined with relative stability of the composition of the voting college. An ECB decision on the implementation details of the rotation system will be adopted at a later stage. Once the rotation system enters into force, the list of governors having voting rights will be published on the ECB website and regularly updated. (A.B./trans/rh)