Tomorrow, the ECON Committee of the European Parliament will hear the nominated candidates and vote on the appointment for three top positions in the ECB (Philip Lane), EBA (José Manuel Campa) and SRB (Sebastiano Laviola). In the past, the Committee has criticised several times the lacking gender balance in nominations for EU top financial positions. Currently, there is only one woman versus five men in the ECB Executive Board, one women versus 29 men in the ECB General Council, and one women chairing the SRB versus five men in the board, while the SSM and the three ESAs are chaired by men. With the planned appointments, this situation will deteriorate. Daniela Nouy and Sabine Lautenschläger, two successful top women in financial supervision, recently lost their positions and were or are set to be replaced by men.
The Greens tried in several meetings between ECON coordinators to gather support for a tougher line of the committee in the nomination procedure in order to ensure more gender balance but failed to get support by inter alia EPP and S&D.
MEP Sven Giegold, financial and economic policy spokesperson of the Greens/EFA group and MEP Ernest Urtasun commented:
“Despite several calls for more women in EU top finance positions, Council and Commission again presented embarrassing men-only shortlists for all three positions. The past declarations by Eurogroup president Mario Centeno and the ECB to deliver more gender balance in future nominations proved to be empty announcements. By approving three men tomorrow, the ECON committee would show a lack of determination to reject the Council’s backroom nomination decisions which regularly lead to doubtful outcomes. As a result, such a decision would worsen the already medieval status quo in EU top financial positions by even reducing the number of women. Our objection to all candidates is irrespective of their general suitability and their performance in the hearing. The parliament has to take the gloves of in order to make progress in gender equality for financial top positions.
We call on the ECON committee to object to all candidates as a matter of principle, because we can no longer accept the status quo of a nomination procedure that leads de facto to a systematic preferential treatment of men. The nomination procedure must finally be overhauled to guarantee the selection of the most qualified candidates ensuring true equal opportunities. It would be a sign of weakness by the European Parliament if we continued work to-rule through the nomination of three more men while Council and Commission present male candidates only.”
Link to the letter by the ECON committee with five demands on the reform of the nomination procedure to Mario Centeno: https://sg.admk-dev.de/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/18-03-14_Letter_Centeno_ECB_Appointment_procedures.pdf
The weak response by Mario Centeno which has not lead to any serious reaction by the majority in the European Parliament: https://sg.admk-dev.de/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/18-03-14_Response_Centeno.jpg
Link to follow the hearing in the ECON Committee tomorrow: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/ep-live/en/committees/video?event=20190226-0900-COMMITTEE-ECON
Link to letter by the Green group to Antonion Tajani: https://sg.admk-dev.de/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/190304-letter-President-Tajani.pdf
Schedule of the hearings and appointments:
- Appointment of a member of the Single Resolution Board: 9.45 – 10.25
- Appointment of a member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank: 10.30 – 11.25
- Appointment of the Chair of the European Banking Authority: 11.30 – 12.25