Parliament's Economic Committee questioned Wim Duisenberg for three hours in special confirmation hearings before approving his candidature as the president of the European Central Bank. The Committee was particularly seeking clarification of his statement at the Brussels Summit that he would be standing down before the end of his eight-year term of office. His reply was unequivocal.
"I do not intend to step down at a given point in time; although there has been considerable pressure on me to set a date. I refused to do so as that would have been a breach of the Treaty. I would not have accepted my nomination under those terms. The duration of my term of office is still open, and given good health, who knows, I may serve for eight years." Asked whether he felt that his independence had been compromised the Summit's decision, Mr Duisenberg answered with a firm "No!". Matters had developed in a way that he himself would not have wanted. In response to concerns raised by both Alan Donnelly and Fernand Herman, Mr Duisenberg said: "I can see no need, for example, to raise interest rates in order to establish the credibility of the ECB over the stability of the new currency."
Mr Duisenberg said he did not favour entering into a formal agreement with the European Parliament on the terms of the future monetary dialogue between the two institutions. "I would prefer to continue and develop the present informal arrangement between Parliament and the EMI, which to date has worked very well." He went on to stress the willingness of ECB members to appear before Parliament's committee responsible, at least four times a year.
Christa Randzio-Plath (PES, D), asked Mr Duisenberg how he intended to support the wider objectives of growth and employment through the monetary policy of the ECB. In reply, Mr Duisenberg said that the ECB would support other policies to the extent that doing so did not compromise the bank's price stability objective.
Mr Duisenberg told the Committee that the ECB would not hesitate to make its views known on fiscal questions if it believed this would be conducive to a better monetary policy. There was a need for greater convergence in this area; goods and capital should not circulate simply as a result of discrepancies between fiscal systems.
On the question of possible financial crises in Europe, Mr Duisenberg said that the ECB would take action only if the whole euro-zone was affected. The specific problems of any one country must be resolved within that country by means of other instruments: fiscal policy and wage and price adjustments.