EU Parliament to vote on Mersch appointment in October

The European Parliament will vote on the proposed appointment of Yves Mersch to the European Central Bank's Executive Board later this month after a delay to protest against male bias, a parliamentary source said on Wednesday.

The vote will now take place on October 22, the parliament source said. Mersch, Luxembourg's central bank governor, could still take the ECB seat even if parliament votes against him because the appointment is in the hands of EU member states.

The Parliament will concentrate more on how Mersch was chosen than his competence, parliamentary sources say.

In September, the lawmakers postponed Mersch's appointment indefinitely by putting off the cross-examination in protest at what they called "systemic" bias against women.

The ECB's 23-member Governing Council, comprising the six-member Executive Board and the heads of the 17 euro zone states' national central banks, has not included a woman since Austria's Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell stepped down in May 2011.

(Reporting By Claire Davenport; Writing by Ben Deighton; Editing by Catherine Evans)