Better things to do in life

Date: 12/03/1998

Those who do win a seat on the ECB board will have to face a yearly grilling by the European Parliament's monetary subcommittee.

If the experience of Portugal's central bank governor António De Sousa - who was summoned to appear before this esteemed gathering last week - is anything to go by, this might be an intensely irritating experience.

De Sousa flew to Brussels especially to attend the 9am hearing, but was greeted by only a handful of MEPs, most committee members having presumably decided that they had better things to do.

Only the presence of journalists and a smattering of parliamentary assistants prevented the event from becoming an embarrassing fiasco.

To cap it all, one of the few MEPs who did bother to attend - former Belgian Finance Minister Fernand Herman - spent much of the hearing ostentatiously reading a newspaper.