Minister Donohoe welcomes progress for nomination of the Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland to ECB Executive Board position

30th January, 2019

 

The Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform, Paschal Donohoe TD, today (Wednesday) acknowledged the closing of nominations for a position on the Executive Board of the European Central Bank. As the nominating period closed Professor Philip Lane, Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland, remained the sole candidate.

 

The next Eurogroup meeting is expected to discuss Professor Lane’s candidacy on 11 February and ECOFIN will adopt a formal recommendation to the European Council on the 12th of February.

 

Professor Lane’s outstanding economic, financial and policy making record ideally position him to take a seat at the Executive Board of the European Central Bank. 

 

His current position as Chair of the Advisory Technical Committee of the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) and his previous appointments as Chair of the High-Level Task Force on Safe Assets and Chair of the Advisory Scientific Committee, demonstrate the standing he is held in at European level. 

 

Minister Donohoe stated: ‘I am delighted to hear that Governor Lane is standing unopposed for the position on the Executive Board of the ECB. Philip is an exceptionally well qualified candidate and I have every confidence would do an exemplary job if appointed to the role’. 

  

ENDS

 

Notes for Editors

At the Eurogroup meeting of Eurozone Finance Ministers today (21st of January 2019), the Eurogroup President initiated the procedure for the appointment of a member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank with a call for candidacies. The term of the incumbent, Peter Praet, ends on the 31st of May 2019. The Eurogroup will agree on a candidate on the 11th of February and ECOFIN will adopt a formal recommendation to the European Council on the 12th of February. The European Parliament and European Central Bank will then deliver opinions on the recommendation with the appointment scheduled to be agreed at the European Council on the 21st of March. The new Executive Board member will take up their post on the 1st of June 2019.

 

Biography of Philip Lane

Philip R. Lane is Whately Professor of Political Economy (on leave) at Trinity College Dublin. He is Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland and sits on the ECB Governing Council. He is an ex-officio member of the General Board, Chair of the Advisory Technical Committee and Steering Committee of the ESRB.  He received his PhD in Economics from Harvard in 1995 and was Assistant Professor of Economics and International Affairs at Columbia University during 1995-1997 before returning to Dublin.

His research interests include financial globalisation, macroeconomics of exchange rates and capital flows, macroeconomic policy design and European monetary integration.  His work has been published in the American Economic Review, Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Journal of International Economics, NBER Macroeconomics Annual and many other journals.

In 2001, he was the inaugural recipient of the German Bernacer Award in Monetary Economics for outstanding contributions to European monetary economics; in 2010, he was co-recipient of the Bhagwati Prize from the Journal of International Economics. He is a research fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); he was previously the Director of its International Macroeconomics and Finance Programme.

He previously held the positions of Chair of the ESRB Advisory Scientific Committee and Chair of the High-Level Task Force on Safe Assets of the European Systemic Risk Board.

He has also acted as an academic consultant for the European Central Bank, European Commission, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, OECD, Asian Development Bank and a number of national central banks. He is also a member of the Royal Irish Academy.