THE EUROPEAN Parliament is set to reject Luxembourg central banker Yves Mersch’s appointment to the European Central Bank’s executive board on grounds that he is a man and insufficient efforts have been made to appoint a woman.

The move could delay a key appointment at the ECB at a time when the bank is devising methods to deal with a sovereign debt crisis.

Leading lawmakers from six of the largest political groupings in the European Parliament have agreed to reject Mr Mersch (63) on grounds of systemic gender bias at the ECB, one of those parliamentarians said yesterday.

A hearing into his candidacy will still go ahead on October 22nd, but Sylvie Goulard, a French liberal parliamentarian, said unless EU states decided to withdraw Mr Mersch’s candidacy, the parliament had no option but to reject him. “The hearing should take place on October 22nd but a negative recommendation would be adopted”, she said. – (Reuters)