Belgian dissent mars ECB vote

At an informal meeting of economic and finance ministers in Oviedo, Spain on 13 April 2002, Belgium abstained from a vote to pick the European Central Bank's next vice-president. Although fourteen of the fifteen European Union finance ministers backed Greece's chief banker Lucas Papademos for the role as vice president of the ECB, the Belgian foreign minister withheld his support, favouring his countryman Paul De Grauwe.