The European Parliament rejected the nomination of Luxembourg's Yves Mersch to the European Central Bank's executive board on Thursday on the grounds that insufficient effort had been made to find a suitable woman for the post. In a vote of the full parliament, members rejected Mersch's candidacy by 325 votes to 300, with 49 abstentions, a parliamentary spokesman said.
Despite his rejection, the Luxembourg central banker can still be appointed to the post since the decision ultimately rests with euro zone member states. Lawmakers said they had taken the decision in part because they were unhappy that the European Council, which represents EU member states, have failed to take seriously a request to come up with a list of viable women candidates for the job. Their criticism was particularly aimed at Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council.
"Van Rompuy has not taken the opportunity to offer more than lip service to what is a very serious matter," Sharon Bowles, the chair of parliament's economics committee, said. The veto against Mersch is a show of strength by the parliament, which has never previously taken such a firm stand on a similar issue. Parliamentarians said Mersch's appointment sent a bad message on gender equality. "How can you go to Tunisia to tell them to respect the rights of women and then have an all-male ECB," said Sylvie Goulard, a French liberal member of parliament.
But despite the forthrightness from parliament, its vote is unlikely to have any impact, with Mersch's appointment expected to go ahead anyway. Parliament President Martin Schulz is now obliged to ask for a new candidate to be put forward, but the European Council can still ignore their rejection. The ECB is made up of a 17-member governing council and a six-member executive board all of whom are men at this time. If Mersch is appointed the next opening would not be until 2018.
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