The European Parliament's economic and monetary affairs committee this evening voted to oppose a new nominee to the executive board of the European Central Bank, citing criticisms about the failure to consider any female candidates for the vacancy. The European Parliament as a whole will now vote on the proposal to reject nominee Yves Mersch in its plenary session on Thursday (1). Commenting after the vote, Green economic and finance spokesperson
Sven Giegold (MEP, Germany) said:
“This vote sends a strong political signal to EU governments that they cannot continue to ignore the exclusion of women from the Eurozone's highest decision-making bodies.
"There has been no female member of the ECB's executive board since 2011, a situation compounded by the lack of any female presidents of Eurozone central banks, which sit on the governing council. The lack of any female representation in the highest decision-making bodies dealing with the Euro crisis is clearly not acceptable. The EP plenary must now endorse today's vote and demonstrate to EU member states that they need to redress this situation, all the more so as there is no change anticipated to the ECB board until 2018.
"Regrettably, in spite of assurances from Eurogroup president Jean-Claude Juncker that candidates of each gender would be considered for the replacement of Mr Gonzalez-Palermo (2), no female candidate was finally considered. There is no shortage of qualified female candidates, so the failure to even consider any, in spite of these assurances, has left MEPs with no alternative. The ECB is already a body with far-reaching influence and limited accountability; filling a new position on its executive against the will of democratically-elected representatives would be a further step backwards in terms of European democracy in the Euro crisis."
(1) The European Parliament has a consultation role regarding appointments to the executive board of the European Central Bank. Although not binding, this would represent the first time the EP had rejected a nominee to the board, and would as such be a strong political signal.
(2) The economic and monetary affairs committee had previously raised the issue of female representation and committee chair Sharon Bowles wrote to Eurogroup president Jean-Claude Juncker in May 2012 to this end asking him to ensure a female candidate be considered for the replacement of Mr Gonzalez-Palermo.
- Spot the error blog and picture montage of male-dominated economic decision-making:
http://www.sven-giegold.de/2012/keine-frauen-in-top-positionen-in-der-europaischen-wirtschaftspolitik/ 
