EU summit reaches agreement on bank chief
BRUSSELS, May 3 (Reuters) - European Union leaders reached an agreement early on Sunday under which Dutchman Wim Duisenberg will be appointed head of the European Central Bank and retire early at his own request, EU diplomats said.
One diplomat said no date would be specified in writing for his departure but Duisenberg would make known his intention in a statement and the leaders would agree that his successor should be a Frenchman.
''There'll be no date mentioned. Duisenberg will make a statement,'' the diplomat said, adding that all other candidates for the ECB board had also been approved.
''It's not going to be in black and white. It'll be most probably for four years and he'll resign after four years and the French get their man in for eight years,'' the diplomat said.
French President Jacques Chirac, who had nominated his central bank governor, Jean-Claude Trichet, for the post, had earlier insisted the summit note in writing that Duisenberg agreed to go at the latest by July 1, 2002, when euro banknotes and coins replace national currencies.
Germany had blocked such a written commitment, saying it was incompatible with the Maastricht treaty on European economic and monetary union and could cause constitutional problems at home. |
