22 July 2000
Mr Philippe Maystadt, President, European Investment Bank
Dear Philippe,
Thank you for your letter of 3 July in response to mine of 21 June last.
Since you wrote to me this matter has been before the Irish Courts. The Supreme Court has now issued a final ruling on the Riordan case, and a copy of this is attached for your information. As far as domestic legal and political impediments are concerned, I confirm that there are none. I can confirm also that Mr O'Flaherty is the Irish Government's candidate with the agreement of my Danish and Greek colleagues for nomination by the Board of Directors for the post of Vice-President. I would appreciate therefore if the procedures to deal with this candidature could be advanced with a view to an early appointment.
You refer in your letter to the June annual meeting and the call of Governors for a new phase of deliberations on governance and improving the effectiveness of the Bank's decision-making bodies, and in the context of governance the Bank is considering the overall procedures in relation to appointments to the Management Committee.
For the last quarter century we have had, what is, in effect, a shareholders' agreement on how appointments are made to the Management Committee. These arrangements set out the basis on which the shareholders' interests in the overall management of the Bank are secured in a representative and consistent manner. This approach and framework has been endorsed in the context of successive EU accession treaties, both by the EU Member States and the governing organs of the Bank. It has served us well and my firm conviction is that, in going forward, these arrangements should continue.
It goes without saying that the Irish authorities consider that these procedures must be followed for the current two vacancies on the Management Committee.
As regards the reference in the last paragraph of your letter to the deliberations on future governance, I will write to you on this matter after the present appointments have been made.
Yours sincerely,
Charlie McCreevy TD Minister for Finance Governor for Ireland