BRUSSELS: Luxembourg central bank chief Yves Mersch is expected to be named to a top European Central Bank post next week after his nomination was held up for months by objections that there were no women candidates for the job, EU sources said Friday.
EU leaders meet Thursday and Friday in Brussels for difficult talks on the bloc's 2014-20 budget but they will also find time to name Mersch to the ECB's all-male executive board, the sources said.
Leaders will "examine the nomination of a member of the ECB executive board," one source said.
"Everything suggests that we will take a decision," another source said.
Eurozone finance ministers named Mersch in July to replace Jose Manuel Gonzalez-Paramo of Spain but Mersch was fiercely opposed by many in the European Parliament who objected that his appointment would result in an all-male ECB top management until 2018.
The situation became more complicated earlier this month when Spain blocked the appointment, apparently motivated by a desire to regain influence at the top of the eurozone's central bank.
Mersch had been named in preference to a male Spanish candidate to replace Gonzalez-Paramo, with Madrid said to be unhappy at what it saw as a "non-transparent" appointment.
While Parliament was consulted on Mersch's nomination, it is EU leaders who have the final say on the post which will be settled by a majority vote, meaning Spain can not block Mersch's appointment by itself.
ECB top management comprises a six-member executive board and the central bank governors of the 17 member states.
The last woman on the ECB board was Austrian Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell between 1998 and 2011 who was replaced by Peter Praet of Belgium in preference to Slovakian Elena Kohutikova.
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