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CDU wants more power for Germany on ECB, 'voice cannot be equal as Malta'
Germany's ruling Christian Democrat party (CDU) wants to redraw the balance of power within the European Central Bank, to give Europe's biggest economy a greater say, according to a report today in the Financial Times Deutschland.
9 November 2011, 12:00am
Karl Stagno-Navarra
Karl Stagno-Navarra
1 min read
The report says that Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party is set to propose “radical changes” to the current system, so that instead of each of the 17 eurozone member states having an equal say on the ECB's policy-setting governing council, votes are weighted according to a country's economic size and importance.
It went on to say that the CDU is pressuring Merkel into making it clear with the EU that as Europe’s biggest paymaster, “Germany’s voice cannot be equal to that of tiny Malta.”
The CDU’s recommendations are to be made public next week during the party congress that is to be held in Leipzig.
Under the ECB's current statutes, each eurozone country has one vote on the governing council, the body responsible for setting interest rates for the single currency area.
The governing council also decides on other policy matters, notably the bank's responses to the eurozone debt crisis, including the provision of liquidity to banks and the controversial decision to buy the sovereign bonds of debt-ridden countries.
Germany was a vocal opponent of the latter decision and Bundesbank President Axel Weber and the ECB's German chief economist Juergen Stark both resigned in protest at the move.
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Germany, wants other Governments to incorporate strict budget rules into their constitions, to stop such recklesness in future, and later a federal Government that can TAX others.
