Monetary policy is decided in the Council of the ECB by the presidents of the national central banks of the eurozone member states, the President and Vice-President of the ECB and the members of the ECB Executive Board. The presidents of the national central banks attend ECB Council meetings in person.
The representatives of the Bank of Latvia explain that Latvia has already been in such a situation in the relatively recent past – after the arrest of the then President of the Bank of Latvia Ilmārs Rimšēvičs in 2018. Rimševičs could not attend the meetings of the ECB Council for several months in 2018, until the security measure applied to him was clarified.
By a special decision of the ECB Council at that time, the Deputy President of the Bank of Latvia, Zoja Razmus, was allowed to participate in the meetings without the right to vote, in the status of an observer. Later, Rimševičs issued a power of attorney to Razmus for representation in the ECB Council, and in September 2018, Latvia regained its voting rights.
The Law on the Bank of Latvia states that until the beginning of the term of office of the President of the Bank of Latvia, the duties of the President of the Bank of Latvia (except for the duties of a member of the ECB Council) will be performed by an incumbent Deputy President of the Bank of Latvia appointed by the Saeima, and during his absence – by the Deputy President of the Bank of Latvia appointed by the Council of the Bank of Latvia member.
Therefore, if the Saeima does not elect the next president of the Bank of Latvia on December 19, then it will have to determine which deputy president – Santa Purgaile or Māris Kālis – will perform the duties of the president of the Bank of Latvia until a new president is elected, the representatives of the Bank of Latvia explain.
It has already been reported that new candidacies for the president of the Bank of Latvia had to be put forward, because on December 21 of this year, the first term of office of the current president Mārtiņš Kazāk expires. He was elected president of the Bank of Latvia for a five-year term on December 12, 2019. 76 deputies voted for him at that time.
Three candidates have been applied for the position of the president of the Bank of Latvia – the current president Kazāks, who is nominated by the coalition partners “Progresīvie” and “Jaunā vienotība” (JV), the chairman of the board of the Development Finance Institution Altum (“Altum”) Reinis Bērziņš, nominated by the third coalition parties Members of the Union of Greens and Farmers (ZZS) and the National Union of opposition parties and the “Joint List”, as also Pavel Kuzmins, nominated by the opposition party “Stability”.
The LETA agency knows that Kazaks will not be supported by “Latvia first”, but “United list” and the National Union, although they have not yet officially pledged their support to any candidate, they could still support Bērziņš, whose nomination has also been signed by several of their deputies.
The Law “On the Bank of Latvia” stipulates that the president of the bank is elected by the Saeima on the proposal of no less than ten Saeima deputies. The term of office of the president of the bank is five years, and the same person can hold this position for no more than two consecutive terms.