MEP moves to block French candidate for ECB top job

Date: 13/02/03

THE man tipped to grab the top European Central Bank (ECB) job if France's Jean-Claude Trichet is jailed should be disqualified from holding the post, a senior MEP has warned.

Trichet - in line to take over from current ECB President Wim Duisenberg - is awaiting a judgement on 18 June for his alleged role in a financial scandal at formerly state-owned French bank Credit Lyonnais.

France insists a French candidate should be the new ECB boss under a compromise over Duisenberg's tenure.

But Christa Randzio-Plath, Socialist chairwoman of the Parliament's economic and monetary affairs committee, said Paris' second choice, Christian Noyer, should not be considered because his stint as ECB vice-president has only just ended.

The EC treaty states that candidates must not serve two or more consecutive terms of office at the bank in order to ensure its independence.

"What are the rules for if they can be manipulated? If you do it once then credibility concerning independence is gone," she told European Voice. Her committee has the power to vet top ECB staff, even though EU leaders can ignore its views.

Some members, including UK Liberal Chris Huhne and Finland's centre-right MEP Piia-Noora Kauppi, said they would not object to Noyer's candidature. But Kauppi said the legal situation should be clarified.

Randzio-Plath also attacked ECB reforms to give bigger states a right to vote more frequently than smaller ones on interest rates , in order to prepare the bank for new eurozone members.

Christa Randzio-Plath, Socialist chairwoman of the European Parliament's economic and monetary affairs committee, said Christian Noyer should not be considered as a candidate for the presidency of the ECB because his stint as vice-president has only just ended.