European Central Bank: Isabel Schnabel to become ECB director

The Federal Government wants to nominate the renowned economics and finance professor Isabel Schnabel for the board of directors of the European Central Bank. A proposal to this effect will be adopted by the Cabinet on Wednesday. The Eurogroup also has to confirm Schnabel in office as ECB director. The six-member Executive Board of the ECB manages the affairs of the central bank. Mario Drahgi is in front of him. First the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" reported on the nomination of Schnabel as ECB director.

The 48-year-old professor teaches financial market economics at the University of Bonn and in 2014 was appointed to the German Council of Economic Experts for the Review of Macroeconomic Development.

Schnabel follows Sabine Lautenschläger. Lautenschläger had surprisingly announced her resignation from the governing body of the European Central Bank in September. She will retire there on 31 October, more than two years before the end of the regular eight-year term of office for the members of the ECB's Executive Board.

The lawyer Lautenschläger had repeatedly criticized the ultra-loose monetary policy of the ECB - especially the recent interest rate decision of the central bank and the billion-dollar bond purchases. The ECB had not given any indication of the reasons for Lautenschläger's move.

Finance Minister Scholz had previously pledged that the post in the ECB executive committee should be filled again with a woman. In addition to Schnabel, the vice-president of the Deutsche Bundesbank, Claudia Buch, was named as a promising candidate.

Criticism of the personality Schnabel came from the FDP. With their nomination, the government adds "the previous majorities within the ECB," said the financial expert Florian Toncar AFP news agency. "Necessary and right" would have been the suggestion of one person "fighting out of conviction for another monetary policy," he added. The current measures of the ECB are a "danger to retirement provision, the stability of the financial system" and ultimately the credibility of the ECB.