Substatial reform of the European Central Bank (ECB), combined with greater accountability, is necessary for future European Union enlargement, according to a group of European economists.
Writing collectively in the spring 2002 edition of the Irish Banking Review, the chief economists of a number of Europe's leading banks and banking associations said the ECB's current institutional set-up was a major obstacle to further EU enlargement.
If the current structure and arrangement of voting rights were to apply after the next round of enlargement, the ECB would become unwieldy and cumbersome, the economists said. All EU members have one vote in the ECB governing council.
Added to this are six votes for the board of directors. Current plans for enlargement would bring the governing council to 28 members.
Also writing in the review, former Taoiseach, Dr Garret FitzGerald, expressed concern about the ECB's role in creating the current imbalance between central banking and political accountability.
Dr FitzGerald said it was understandable that concern to maximise confidence in the new European currency should have led to the establishment of an ECB which, with due respect to Ecofin, initially has not operated in a framework within which macroeconomic policy is decided at a European political level.
"At some point in the not-too-distant future this will need to be reviewed," wrote Dr FitzGerald.
