European Central Bank Council to meet today in Helsinki

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The European Central Bank's (ECB) highest decision-making body, the Governing Council, will hold a meeting today, Thursday, at the Finlandia Hall in Helsinki.
      The Governing Council comprises the six members of the Executive Board and the governors of the national central banks (NCBs) of the twelve EU states that have adopted the euro.
     
The Governing Council convenes twice a month, usually in the ECB's hometown, Frankfurt am Main in Germany. Twice a year, the Council customarily holds their meeting in some other euro country.
      With these "provincial visits" the ECB aims to advance its public image and to dispel the notion of a secretive cabinet body detached from the European people.
      These visits also provide the Council members with an opportunity to acquaint themselves with the different parts of the common currency area. Most of the members arrived in Finland already on Wednesday evening.
      After the meeting on Thursday, quite a few of the Council members plan to stay in Helsinki until Friday.
      The idea of the "provincial visits" was inherited from the German NCB, which in many other ways as well has acted as a conceptual model for the ECB.
      In Germany it was customary for the NCB to keep in touch with the different areas of the federal republic.
     
The three decision-making bodies of the ECB are the Governing Council, the Executive Board, and the General Council. The six members of the Executive Board, including the President and the Vice-President, are chosen for an eight-year-term at a time.
      The newly-appointed President of the ECB, Frenchman Jean-Claude Trichet, is both Executive Board Chairman and Chairman of the Governing Council.
      The General Council comprises the President and the Vice-President and the governors of the NCBs of all EU Member States, including those who have not yet adopted the euro.


Links:
  ECB
  Finlandia Hall

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