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Keeper of the crown

Tůma's run for EBRD presidency hits the skids

By Victor Velek
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
March 12th, 2008 issue

ISIFA
The Czech National Bank's Zdeněk Tůma remains a dark horse candidate to lead the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
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The recently announced candidacy of Zdeněk Tůma, governor of the Czech National Bank (ČNB), to helm a prestigious European bank focused on assisting post-communist countries seems to have ended almost as soon as it began.
At a meeting March 4, the European Union’s finance ministers voiced their support for Thomas Mirow, a German deputy finance minister, to head the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
Backed by a larger number of West European countries, the announcement effectively ended the Czech government’s hopes of placing Tůma in charge of the EBRD, though the country has vowed to continue fighting for the nomination.
Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek announced Tůma’s candidacy Feb. 25 and, two days later, while visiting the White House, he allegedly won support for Tůma from the United States.
Along with the Czech Republic, both Hungary and Greece have proposed nominees to head the EBRD, though no candidate has so far made a dent against Western Europe’s traditional control of the bank.
“The finance ministers agreed the [European Union] will nominate a single candidate and Mirow has a large backing,” said Finance Ministry spokesman Ondřej Jakob. According to Jakob, Mirow was actually decided as the EU’s candidate a day before the March 4 meeting, at a session of euro-zone finance ministers.
While the odds may be long, the government will bring the issue of Tůma’s candidacy forward at an informal meeting of EU finance officials in April, Jakob said.
“Tůma is an ideal candidate,” he said. “He is a renowned expert and he worked for the [EBRD] in the past.”
A Czech candidate is particularly qualified to lead the EBRD, the government emphasizes, because the Czech Republic is the first and, to date, the only post-communist country to graduate from the bank’s sponsorship. At the end of 2007, the country ceased to use the bank’s services, instead becoming a contributing shareholder.
Between 1992 and 2006, the EBRD helped finance projects worth 4.7 billion euros in the Czech Republic. Like elsewhere, the London-based bank’s investments largely supported private enterprise here.
Although Topolánek said Tůma gained support of “a number of European Union countries,” only Slovakia backed the Czech banker at the EU ministerial meeting, according to the Czech News Agency.
The EBRD is owned by 61 countries, the European Community and the European Investment Bank. EU countries exercise a dominant influence on the bank, meaning the U.S. support of Tůma is not enough to outvote large European shareholders like Germany and France.
Moreover, the EU will only nominate one candidate for the bank, ruling out the possibility of an independent nomination by the Czech government.
A final decision on a new EBRD chief will be made at the bank’s annual meeting this May in Kyiv. The outgoing president, Jean Lemierre, will step down from his office in July, after serving two four-year terms.
Apolitical pundit      
Tůma, 47, joined the ČNB as vice governor in 1999, coming from the EBRD, where he was an executive director. In late 2000, he was put in charge of the central bank by then President Václav Havel. The appointment was greeted with an outcry both from Miloš Zeman, prime minister at the time, and Václav Klaus, then the senior opposition leader and the current president.
Though he initially resisted Tůma’s appointment, Klaus tapped Tůma to serve a second term in 2005, praising his centrist economic outlook.
Tůma has the image of a calm, moderate and politically cautious man, analysts say.
“He has assiduously avoided making political statements and has stuck to analytical economic issues,” said ČSOB analyst Tomáš Sedláček. During his entire tenure at the bank, Tůma has received virtually no criticism from the economic community, Sedláček added.
Tůma has a moderate stance toward euro adoption, while Klaus and the senior ruling Civic Democrats prefer a delayed adoption of the single currency. In a January interview for the daily Hospodářské noviny, Tůma said he could imagine the country adopting the euro either as early as 2010 or as late as 2019.
“He tries to be neutral, pointing both to positive and negative effects of euro adoption,” Sedláček said.
Should Tůma’s nomination to the EBRD by some chance succeed, it is likely that Klaus would appoint an advocate of late euro adoption to succeed Tůma, Sedláček said.

Victor Velek can be reached at vvelek@praguepost.com


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