FRANKFURT (MNI) – Former European Central Bank Executive Board
member Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa passed away on Saturday.
According to media reports, Padoa-Schioppa was hospitalized late
Saturday because of a heart attack and died shortly afterwards.
A founding member of the central bank’s Executive Board, on which
he served from June 1998 to May 2005, Padoa-Schioppa was widely
considered one of the intellectual architects of the common currency.
News of his death was quickly followed by condolences from European
policymakers, including from his former colleagues at the ECB.
“As a man of vision and strong European convictions, Tommaso
Padoa-Schioppa was a powerful voice on the European monetary scene even
before the creation of the euro. He contributed decisively in the early
years of the euro to the reputation of the ECB as a major actor in
international and European cooperation,” ECB President Jean-Claude
Trichet said in a statement.
“European Monetary Union is losing a man of reflection, of action
and of vision, fully dedicated to European unity,” Trichet added.
Following his time at the ECB, Padoa-Schioppa acted as Italian
minister of economy and finance from 2006 to 2008 under the center-left
government of Romano Prodi.
More recently, since August 2010, Padoa-Schioppa was an adviser to
the Greek government for economy and debt management. In this role, he
advised Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou on economic, fiscal and
structural policies aimed at helping Greece to address its financial
problems.
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