The current voting arrangement at the European Central Bank is that each of the current 24 governing council members–18 national central bank governors and six executive board members–gets a vote.
BUT …
- That will change if Lithuania joins the euro next year as the Baltic country hopes (and looks likely)
- The ECB’s “rotation system” will be triggered if (when) the euro zone adds one more member
When the number of euro-zone countries hits 19, the five largest economies in the bloc—Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands—will be pooled together and will have a total of four votes between them, on a rotating basis. The other central bank governors from Greece to Portugal to Ireland will share 11 votes, meaning they will have a vote even less frequently
Non-voters are “still allowed to present their arguments – on interest rate decisions or non-standard measures, for instance – at every Governing Council meeting and thus to influence the decisions of the voting Governing Council members”