Row over women on ECB board could go to court: source

(BRUSSELS) - Leading EU lawmakers will discuss taking EU states to court over the absence of female representation at the European Central Bank during a closed door meeting on Tuesday, a European Parliament source said.

A rift has grown between the Parliament and the 17 eurozone member states since finance ministers nominated Luxembourg central bank chief Yves Mersch for a seat on the ECB's executive board in July.

Angered by a nomination that would mean an all-male make-up until 2018, the Parliament's economics committee refused to take up Mersch's candidacy.

Concerned that eurozone governments would outflank parliament by confirming his nomination at a summit of leaders on October 18-19, party leaders are readying to step in, the source said Monday.

The heads of the conservative, socialist and other groups could decide to "take legal advice on the merits of and chances of winning a case," the source said. Alternatively, they could "force the economics committee to hold a hearing" before the summit.

"It's for the political group leaders to decide because it would be the president of the parliament who would represent us at the court against the member states," the source added.

No hearing is scheduled before the summit and the chair of the economics committee, English MEP Sharon Bowles, told AFP she expects her opponents to argue that parliament has missed a three-month window in which to interview the candidate.

"That would be their normal final tactic," she said. "It's within their right -- but it's also within our right to take this to the European Court of Justice."

French colleague Sylvie Goulard added that the issue had become an "inter-institutional" tug-of-war.

The European Commission recently proposed quotas for women in boardrooms across the EU but the issue has got caught up in the Mersch appointment, with tempers fraying.

European governments have the ultimate power to decide the appointment after consultation with parliament, pending any court action.

The last woman on the ECB board was Austria's Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell between 1998 and 2011.