By David Barwick and Johanna Treeck

BRUSSELS (MNI) – Europe is losing a strong defender of stability
with the withdrawal of Bundesbank President Axel Weber, but stability is
not so much a question of personalities than of convictions, Eurogroup
head Jean-Claude Juncker told Market News International on the margins
of the Eurogroup meeting.

Weber “was a strong defender of the stability policy inside the
euro area. I don’t know the deeper reasons why he made the decision he
has made, but we are losing in the European framework someone who was
very important,” Juncker said.

“But I don’t think the stability issue is an issue exclusively
linked to persons; it is a matter of convictions and the convictions he
expressed are largely shared by myself and by others,” Juncker added.

Juncker said that neither the departure of Weber nor the nomination
of Belgium National Bank board member Peter Praet to join the European
Central Bank’s Executive Board will play a factor in choosing the next
president for the central bank.

“The treaty is not making any kind of reference to nationality or
to flag but is inviting the member states of the euro area to make a
choice in line with the professional quality of the one who will be
appointed,” Juncker noted.

As such, Luxembourg Central Bank Yves Mersch’s chances to win the
top job are also not affected by Juncker’s own prominent position in the
Eurozone, Juncker said.

“I don’t think there is a link between the nationality of Mr Mersch
and myself. We have the same nationality, that is true, but I am the
president of the Eurogroup elected not as Luxembourgish Prime Minister
but as a person, and the appointment of the ECB president has to follow
the same line,” Juncker stressed.

He described Peter Praet’s nomination for the Executive Board as
“to some extent logical” given his deep involvement and experience in
banking supervision.

Juncker said that the ECB’s level of concern over inflation had not
changed, given that President Jean-Claude Trichet “exactly repeated what
he was stating after the last Governing Council” when he spoke to the
ministers on Monday evening.

The ECB’s call for boosting the European Financial Stability
Facility are “for the time being under consideration,” Juncker
confirmed.

–Frankfurt bureau tel.: +49-69-720142. Email: frankfurt@marketnews.com

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