ECB must uphold commitment to reflect Ireland’s concerns when it loses voting rights – Hayes

Fine Gael Dublin MEP, Brian Hayes, said today (Sunday) that ECB President Mario Draghi must hold firm on a commitment to acknowledge Ireland’s concerns when it loses out on voting rights in ECB Governing Council meetings.

“President Draghi has confirmed in a letter to me that Ireland’s views will be considered in all upcoming ECB Governing Council meetings, regardless of whether we have voting rights or not. The ECB needs to stick to this commitment and it needs to ensure that there is a strong system of checks and balances to protect Member States who lose their voting rights.

“Lithuania’s accession to the Eurozone in January 2015 will cause voting rights in ECB Governing Council meetings to rotate. The governor of the Central Bank of Ireland will lose out on voting rights for the first two months of 2015 and will lose voting rights for February, March and April in 2016. The five largest Eurozone Member States, who are in a different grouping, will also lose out on voting rights at least twice per year, but they never lose their vote on consecutive months.

“This represents little change in the balance of voting rights, however, when new countries join the Eurozone, Ireland’s voting rights will diminish further while larger Member States will retain their voting frequency. If we get to a stage where the number of Eurozone members increases to 21, Ireland will only have voting frequency of 69% while larger Members like France will retain an 80% voting frequency.
“It would be completely wrong if the impression was created that there was some sort of second class Euro membership in place due to voting entitlements. The fact of the matter is that the five largest Members are in a rather secure position given that their voting frequency will never go below 80%, whereas smaller Members will see their influence diminish over time as new Members join the Eurozone. For instance, Ireland’s voting frequency could drop as low as 57% if the number of Eurozone members increases to 27.
“President Draghi has informed me that, once the new voting system is in place in January, he does not expect any major change in the way the Governing Council conducts its deliberations. Yet this does not account for a significant rise in new member countries.

“The ECB has taken some extremely important decisions recently such as the approval of the Asset Backed Securities scheme and cutting of its interest rates to a record low of 0.05%. These are issues that seriously affect Ireland’s recovery and therefore we need to be at the forefront of decision-making.”