US abandons Big Brother for openness

It must be something to do with Horst Kohler. First he won the nomination to lead the IMF after the embarrassing withdrawal of Germany's and the EU's previous nominee Caio KochWeser in the face of US opposition. Now, there is a row brewing over who will fill his shoes in his old job as head of the European Bank of Reconstruction and Develoment.

Sauli Niinisto, the Finnish finance minister who is also chairman of the EBRD - which aids economic in eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union - will announce that a Spaniard and a Frenchman are the candidates for the post.

More controversially, he proposes to EBRD shareholder nations that a group made up only of Europeans should vet the candidates.

That prompted the US, a major EBRD shareholder, to cry foul. The grounds for its concern? "After the IMF leadership process, the US feels feels very strongly about openness," said one source.

Let's get this right. The US, which threw its weight around in the IMF leadership fiasco effectively exercising a veto on any candidate it didn't like regardless of the wishes of other IMF members, wants greater openness. Sounds like a Pauline conversion.

Dominic Coyle is at dcoyle@irish-times.ie