On June 24, the EU leaders have formally appointed the head of the bank of Italy Mario Draghi as the President of the European Central Bank (ECB), informs AFP citing the EU President Herman Van Rompuy. Draghi will replace the current ECB President Jean Claude Trichet. This will happen on November 1, 2011. The President of the ECB is selected for the term of eight years. Draghi has been the governor of the Bank of Italy since 2006, and occupied the position of the vice-president of the investment bank Goldman Sachs before that. Since 1991 until 2011 he headed the Ministry of Finance in Italy. Draghi was appointed on the next day after The Wall Street Journal had written about that his candidature could not be supported by France. Mass media mention that the French authorities are unsatisfied with the situation when after Trichet’s leaving the governing council of the ECB, France will not be represented there at all, while Italy will attain two out of six positions in the council. Currently the ECB board includes the representatives from Portugal, Belgium, Spain, Italy and Germany. The sources of the WSJ confirm that the French party may require the Italian authorities to guarantee the resignation of the Italian Bini Smaghi. In his turn, Smaghi declared that he would not leave the post in the ECB council. The French Jean Claude Trichet has headed the ECB since 2003. The term of his presidency expires on October 31. Later on Friday Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, stated that the position of Smaghi in the ECB board will be taken by the representative of France, and Smaghi will submit resignation himself. However, she did not mention the name of the person to replace Smaghi.