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.