Jürgen Stark, vice-president of Germany's Bundesbank and an economic policy "hawk", will today almost certainly win European Union finance ministers' backing to join the European Central Bank's executive board despite simmering resentment from smaller countries.
Mr Stark is regarded as a conservative on fiscal as well as monetary policy, and is likely to add to the voices calling for increases in ECB interest rates.
He will replace Otmar Issing, a former Bundesbank board member, whose eight-year term at the ECB expires at the end of May.
His selection has provoked some disquiet in Brussels, not so much because of his views, but because of the ease with which Germany has ensured one of its nationals remains on the ECB executive.
Smaller members of the eurozone fear that the six-man executive board will become the eurozone's "security council" with the big four - Germany, France, Spain and Italy - guaranteed permanent seats.
Mr Stark (57) is unlikely to inherit Mr Issing's role as ECB chief economist. This will put a limit on the impact of his views on ECB decisions.
Financial markets have, however, already dubbed Mr Stark the "über-hawk" because of his support for traditional Bundesbank ways of thinking.
Holger Schmieding, economist at Bank of America, said that implied "more than an emphasis on money supply and credit growth".
"Bundesbankers tend to see low inflation not just as a prerequisite for long-term economic growth but also as part of the moral order of a free and just society," he said.
