Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-05-15-Speech-4-040"
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"en.20030515.2.4-040"2
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"Madam President, by virtue of the rules of the EC treaty, we on the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs heard Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell, the Council’s recommended candidate for the Executive Board of the European Central Bank, as successor to Sirkka Hämäläinen. Mrs Tumpel-Gugerell’s curriculum vitae would indicate that she is an excellent choice in terms of the main requirements laid down in the EC Treaty for membership of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank, namely personal integrity and recognised standing and professional experience in the monetary and banking field. In addition to these formal qualifications, however, there are three factors that would especially favour the choice of Mrs Tumpel-Gugerel for this job.
Firstly, her enormous experience and impressive levels of expertise were natural prerequisites for the job. Even excellent individuals do not succeed on their own merits, however, if their background is felt to be less than favourable. It is likely that Austria’s good reputation as a competitive Member State driving responsible policies under the leadership of its present government helped in making the choice. The Member States of the Union together committed themselves to the Stability and Growth Pact ensuring European competitiveness and economic success. The challenges are largely the same in all the Member States: a damagingly inflexible labour market that allows mass unemployment to continue in the Member States of the European Union, and the need to balance state income and expenditure. An ageing population will put intolerable financial pressures on our pensions and social welfare systems unless we implement the necessary changes in time.
The Austrian Government has taken the first important steps to safeguard its public pensions system. I wish the Austrian Government luck and success in this work, in spite of the considerable resistance to change. The immense importance of public pensions systems is indicated by the fact that it is our poorest citizens in particular who need them most of all to provide for their retirement.
Secondly, the choice of Mrs Tumpel-Gugerell especially supported the notion that the European Union is a forum of collaboration between Member States of different sizes. To ensure that the Union is equal and functions properly it is essential that experts from the small Member States can also participate directly in decision-making. As a Finn, I know that the choice of Mrs Tumpel-Gugerel, an Austrian, was the right decision from this point of view also.
Thirdly, it was not a foregone conclusion that a woman would be chosen to succeed Sirkka Hämäläinen. I am pleased that female representation in the European Central Bank’s main decision-making body was allowed to continue, and obviously with no compromises being made with regard to expertise and professional skill."@en1
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