BRUSSELS (MNI) – European Central Bank Governing Council Guy Quaden
said Wednesday that he will stand down as governor of the National Bank
of Belgium once a new Belgian government is formed.

Asked about a recent story in a Belgian national newspaper that
said he would stand down once a new Belgian government was in place,
Quaden replied: “I confirm what I read in your newspaper.”

The central bank governor, who is currently serving his third
five-year term, said the date of August 5 had been discussed for his
retirement, since he turns 65 on that day, but that he didn’t want to
desert the central bank and would therefore wait for a new government to
be formed.

“The National Bank of Belgium needs in Brussels and in Frankfurt, a
governor that can exert his competencies, so I don’t want to desert and
get away,” Quaden said.

“I don’t want to be anchored to this job, but I don’t want to flee.
Therefore, I will wait. I am healthy and you have my medical statement.
I will continue until a new government has been nominated. Once that is
the case, I will hand over the competencies I have,” Quaden told
reporters after presenting the Belgian National Bank’s spring forecasts.

He noted that his second term had come to an end at the end of
February 2009 and he had been offered a third mandate by the government
at the time, and “according to that Treaty it is five years at least.
This treaty doesn’t allow a government to decrease [the] mandate but a
governor can do so.”

“As it is about a third mandate, well I said, I agreed to ensure
the continuity as the top man of this bank, but I didn’t wish to get to
the very end of this mandate, and that’s what I said in March 2009,”
Quaden recalled.

“It has been discussed.. the date of the 5 August…I will be 65,”
he said, adding, “The fall of the Belgian government makes it
difficult…to nominate a governor – you need a government.”

Quaden said he hasn’t noticed “any major consequences” on the
financial markets related to the Belgian elections.

–Brussels: 0032 487 (0) 32 803 665, echarlton@marketnews.com

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