EU leaders endorse Mario Draghi as ECB president
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Xinhua, June 24, 2011
European Union (EU) leaders formally endorsed Italy's Mario Draghi to be the next president of the European Central Bank (ECB) on Friday.
"The European Council has just agreed on the appointment of Mario Draghi as new president of the European Central Bank," EU President Herman Van Rompuy said in his twitter posting.
Securing decisive support from EU leaders, Draghi, current Italian central bank governor, would take the reins of the ECB during the next eight years after Frenchman Jean-Claude Trichet ends his term in October.
EU finance ministers were expected to finalize the approval procedure in July.
The appointment was approved after France and Italy resolved a dispute concerning the ECB's six-member executive board in last-minute talks.
With Draghi's appointment, the ECB's executive board would have two Italians, but there would be no French.
Paris had pressed for an early departure of Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, another Italian currently on the board, whose eight-year term should end in May 2013.
It was said that a compromise was reached after Smaghi agreed to quit in the coming weeks, paving the way for a French to take his post and setting the stage for a deal on Draghi's appointment.
The dispute highlighted the political influence on the ECB, which should be independent from EU governments.
The European Parliament, which only has a consultative role in nominating of the ECB president, also threw its support behind Draghi in a plenary vote on Thursday.
Known in Italy as "Super Mario," Draghi was born in Rome in 1947. He is a trained economist and earned a PhD in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology of the United States.
Draghi is highly regarded in the global financial sector for his expertise and rich experiences. From 1984 to 1990 Draghi was executive director of the World Bank, and then served as vice chairman and managing director of Goldman Sachs.
He has been the governor of the Bank of Italy since January 2006. In this capacity, he is a member of the powerful Governing and General Councils of the ECB and a member of the Board of Directors of the Bank for International Settlements.
He is also governor for Italy on the Boards of Governors of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Asian Development Bank.
In April 2006 Draghi was elected chairman of the Financial Stability Forum, which became Financial Stability Board in spring 2009 tasked with reforming the financial sector in the wake of the global economic crisis.
Draghi would start his new job at a pivotal time when the euro zone is still battling with a sovereign debt crisis.
"In these tough economic times, it is reassuring to know that the euro-zone will be in safe hands with Mr. Draghi and I look forward to working with him," European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek said following the plenary vote.
The ECB, which decides the monetary policy for the whole 17-nation euro zone, has been playing a key role in helping eurozone countries deal with the crisis. It had pumped billions of euros to shore up European banks and buy government bonds of indebted eurozone members.
Addressing a European Parliament committee earlier this month, Draghi insisted that any form of involvement of private sector in the second bailout package for Greece should be built on entirely voluntary basis to avoid a default scenario, sticking to the ECB's current position.
Draghi also appeared to be a supporter of the German inflation-fighting mindset in the ECB. He repeatedly defended the ECB's hawkish attitude towards inflation, saying that nothing, not even a sovereign debt crisis, should divert its attention from price stability.
