Foreign and Dutch dignitaries will pay their last respects to Wim Duisenberg, the former head of the European Central Bank, at a memorial service before his burial in Amsterdam on Saturday.
Jean Claude Trichet, Duisenberg's successor as ECB President, and Dutch central bank head Nout Wellink will make speeches at the service in Amsterdam's century-old concert theatre, the Concertgebouw, open only to invited guests.
Dutch Prime Jan Peter Balkenende and Finance Minister Gerrit Zalm will attend the service as well as Crown Prince Willem Alexander, who is a member of the supervisory board of the Dutch central bank which Duisenberg once headed. After the service, which starts at 11.00 a.m, Duisenberg will be buried in private by his family in Amsterdam.
Duisenberg - who as president of the ECB from its founding in 1998 until 2003 introduced the euro single currency - died on Sunday at his holiday villa aged 70. He is survived by his second wife, Gretta. He had three children.