Sarkozy is exercising pressure to sit Xavier Mosca, one of his economic advisors, on the ECB’s 6-member Board. Mosca is expected to join the Board when Trichet steps down from being the Bank’s president next year.
The news is reported by the German newspaper Handelsblatt, which quotes E.U. sources. In the last few years, an informal agreement has provided that the 4 Founding Countries be each assigned one of the 6 seats on the Board. At present, in competition for Trichet’s succession are the German Axel Weber and the Italian Mario Draghi.
As both candidates already have a representative on the Board, namely Juergen Stark and Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, according to Sarkozy, one of them will have to surrender his seat to Paris in case either Weber or Draghi are appointed President of the ECB.