–Gender Equity Cited; If Mersch Appointed, Board Would Have No Women

BRUSSELS (MNI) – The European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary
Affairs Committee moved on Thursday evening to block the appointment of
Luxembourg’s central bank governor Yves Mersch to the European Central
Bank Executive Board in a protest fueled by concerns about gender
equity.

Although the committee does not have a binding say on appointments
to the ECB, the members have cancelled Mersch’s parliamentary hearing, a
procedural formality that had been scheduled for next Monday evening.
They hope this will stall final approval of Mersch for the ECB board.

EU lawmakers are working on legislation to mandate gender quotas on
company boards, and the parliament wrote in May to the head of the
Eurozone finance ministers’ group, Jean-Claude Juncker, asking him to
ensure that at least one female candidate would be considered.

The lawmakers’ request was unrequited, so now MEPs are stalling
Mersch’s appointment in protest. Since the departure of Austrian
Gertrude Tumpell-Gugerell last year, the six-member ECB Board has no
female member. Mersch has been nominated to fill the slot of former
Board member Jose Manuel Gonzalez-Paramo, whose term ended at the end of
May and whose seat has been vacant since then.

Mersch’s nomination was already approved by Juncker’s Eurogroup
earlier this year in what was widely considered to be the only real
hurdle. But some MEPs are clearly dissatisfied with their traditional
rubber stamping role.

“If a male candidate were designated this time, barring a
resignation or death the ECB’s board would not include a woman at least
until May 31, 2018,” wrote Sylvie Goulard, the European Parliament
member who initiated the protest against Mersch’s appointment, according
to France’s business daily La Tribune.

The paper noted that “rather ironically,” the European Commission
is currently putting the final touches on a new directive that would
require company boards to have at least four women four every ten seats.

While a new hearing for Mersch has not been scheduled, it is
unclear how far the MEPs are willing to go or how the Eurozone
governments, who decided on Mersch after protracted negotiations. will
respond to the latest development.

Eurozone governments could try to bypass the customary hearing by
arguing that the legal requirement to consult with the EU’s legislature
has already been fulfilled, since Mersch answered MEPs’ questions in
writing earlier this year. And since the Parliament has no binding power
in this matter, it is possible that European Council President Herman
Van Rompuy could allow Mersch’s appointment to proceed on that basis,
though there might well be a political price to pay.

–Brussels newsroom, +324-952-28374; pkoh@mni-news.com

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