FRANKFURT (AFX) - Bundesbank vice president Juergen Stark said the independence of the European Central Bank would be endangered if the role of the euro group of finance ministers were strengthened and formalised.
Writing in the German daily Handelsblatt, Stark said a formalistion of the duties of the euro group would undermine the independence of the ECB "by changing procedures, instruments and institutions of coordination.
He added that the appointment of a political representative for the euro, which has been mooted by Belgium's finance minister Didier Reynders, would harm the currency.
"The last thing that the young euro currency needs is political influence .. the one speaker for the euro is the ECB president (Wim Duisenberg). He is Mr Euro", Stark said.
He said that although the ECB and the euro group enjoy an "intensive" dialogue at present it "must and cannot" be changed into a coordination of monetary policy.
Reynders, who this year's euro group chairman, had said in a February interview with a German magazine that a political representative for the euro should be appointed by the end of the year.