EU Decision on Central Bank Post Complicated by Vacancy at IMF

European Union leaders meeting in Brussels aim to choose a successor to European Central Bank board member Eugenio Domingo Solans, a decision that has become entwined with the quest for a new chief of the International Monetary Fund. Solans, 58, steps down from the ECB in May and Spain wants another national to replace him. Spain is also fielding a candidate to replace Horst Koehler, 61, who quit the IMF to run for Germany's presidency. EU leaders are unlikely to give both jobs to Spaniards, said economists including Paul De Grauwe, who was twice Belgium's candidate for an ECB board seat. The EU has already delayed naming a replacement for Solans as small countries balked at a German-led bid to maintain ECB seats for bigger countries. Solans is one of six members of the ECB board, which along with the 12 national central bank governors, sets interest rates for the currency region stretching from Lisbon to Helsinki. Previous decisions on filling such posts have led to damaging public disputes. French President Jacques Chirac insisted in 1998 on cutting short the term of the ECB's first president, Wim Duisenberg, so that France's Jean-Claude Trichet could take over. Koehler's appointment to the IMF in May 2000 came after four months of haggling between EU governments and the U.S. The IMF has been run by a European since it was founded after World War II.