The following are the nominees for the permanent full-time members of the European Central Bank executive board:
Mr Wim Duisenberg: President.
Mr Christian Noyer (47): Vice-president. A conservative enarque (graduated from the elite Ecole Nationale d'Administration) and formerly the top civil servant in the French finance ministry, he has also served as head of the cabinet of the former finance minister, Mr Jean Arthuis, in the mid-1990s.
Has recently served as head of Paris Club of creditor nations. His nomination instead of Mr Jean Claude Trichet as vice-president is because the Treaty requires that membership terms on the board are non-renewable and the latter would not be able to take over from Mr Duisenberg if already serving on the board.
Mr Otmar Issing (62): The German chief economist of the Bundesbank came to the bank in 1990 from academic life. A professor of economics, his textbooks on the theory and politics of monetary policy are required reading for every economics student. Rigidly orthodox in his views on monetary issues, he has also been the chief proponent of the use of M3 or monetary aggregates as the chief instrument of central bank policy.
Ms Sirkka Hamalainen (58): The only woman on the board, the Finnish Central Bank governor is a technocrat without political affiliation. She took over as governor in 1992. Widely respected, though with hawkish views, she has been spoken of in Finland as a potential candidate for the presidency.
Mr Eugenio Domingo Solans (52): Ultra-liberal Catalan academic economist from the autonomous University of Madrid, he left the university in the late 1980s to take up a position in the regional Banco Zaragozano. Since 1994, he has been a member of the council of the Spanish Central Bank.
Mr Tommaso Padoa Schioppa (57): Formerly a senior official of the Bank of Italy, he has served since last year as the chairman of the Italian stock market regulatory commission. Joined the Italian Central Bank in 1968 and worked there 11 years until appointed to the European Commission as director general for economic and financial affairs. Returned to Italy in 1983. Played key role on Delors Committee which drew up blueprint for economic and monetary union.
Mr Jean Claude Trichet (55): The successor to Mr Duisenberg, he took over governorship of Bank of France in September 1993, and steered it through to independence in 1994. Prior to that, he had been treasury director and was chief-of-staff to former prime minister, Mr Eduard Balladur.
An enarque, as governor of the Banque de France he has been the repeated target of the ire of President Jacques Chirac, who blamed the bank for tightening the economy at the cost of jobs - and thus losing the last general election for the right.