European Central Bank: annual report

2006/2206(INI)

The European Parliament adopted a resolution based on the own-initiative report by Pervenche BERÈS (PES, FR) in response to the 2005 annual report of the European Central Bank. (Please see the summary of 10/10/2006.) The report was adopted by 157 votes in favour to 49 against with 84 abstentions. Several amendments were tabled by the EPP group. However, on the question of appointments to the ECB board, Parliament emphasised that that the nationality of appointees should be irrelevant and that they will continue to be judged by the strict criteria of the Treaty, such as that of their qualifications. It felt, however, that ex-ante democratic accountability and transparency would improve if the Council evaluated several potential candidates and if the candidate proposed by the Council were then subject to a vote of approval by the Parliament.