Spain’s Finance Minister Luis De Guindos’ new appointment as the vice-president of the European Central Bank was backed by the European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee on February 27. MEPs, however, demand improvements to the nomination process.
Backed by 27 votes to 14, with 13 abstentions, MEPs also expressed reservations about the selection procedure, gender balance within the ECB, procedure, the timing of the appointment and the political independence of the nominee.
For members of the European United Left–Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) Group in the European Parliament, the Spanish minister’s nomination should have been rejected.
“We voted against this nomination because Luis de Guindos has zero independence and is politically biased,” said GUE/NGL’s Paloma López. “He has been instrumental in deepening the economic crisis by strictly following the orders of Brussels and Frankfurt. He is also well known for having close ties with the financial sector as a finance minister. He is therefore anything but neutral.”
Spanish MEP Miguel Urbán has also spoken out against the appointment. “Once again, the myth of the supposed independence of the European Central Bank has been exposed as a lie,” he said.
“We have a candidate plugged straight out of a member state government – one with zero experience of working at a national central bank. A candidate borne out of a political horse-trading.”
