President Václav Klaus wrote an article for Monday's Hospodářské noviny, in which he warned against the efforts of the European Union, respectively of the European Central Bank, to transfer some banking supervision powers to the European level. The head of state points to creeping centralisation and refers to expert texts by means of which the Czech National Bank resists efforts at supervision centralisation.
A few notes on that. The issue of a shift of powers to the European level of course deserves a proper discussion, but at the same time, one must know what expert (apart from the fact that he is an expert) is facing the threat of a loss, restriction or bigger supervision of his own agenda and what politician is facing a loss of power.
The right to appoint central bank governing board members without any countersignature is the president's strongest constitutional right because it is subject to no "checks and balances". This right has been recently reinforced by the introduction of the so-called superregulator, where the tasks of the former Securities Commission and other regulatory powers were transfered to the central bank. Václav Klaus therefore logically fears that his own powers will be restricted, he is not any impartial assessor.
The same goes for the central bank. Its "experts" have their own interests, they are facing the loss of…
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