Draghi Defies EU Criticism in Attending Group of 30 Meeting

(Bloomberg) -- European Central Bank President Mario Draghi will join a meeting of the Group of 30, defying the European ombudsman who says attending the exclusive circle of the world’s financial elite amounts to maladministration.

An update to the ECB’s weekly schedule shows Draghi will be at Friday’s plenary in New York, hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The Group of 30 website lists Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, former Federal Reserve chairs Janet Yellen and Ben Bernanke, Credit Suisse Group AG Chief Executive Officer Tidjane Thiam, and former People’s Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan among its members.

European Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly has repeatedly called on Draghi to suspend his membership, arguing that it could compromise the central bank’s independence.

The ECB has pushed back against that criticism, saying officials from its decision-making bodies must be allowed to belong to such fora when “gatherings are deemed relevant and useful for central bankers in fulfilling their mandates.”

Read more: ECB Tells Ombudsman Draghi Should Be Allowed to Be a G30 Member

“The ECB’s robust transparency and good governance frameworks, in combination with the separation between central banking and supervisory tasks, provide necessary and sufficient safeguards to protect and ensure the ECB’s independence,” it said at the time.

To contact the reporter on this story: Carolynn Look in Frankfurt at clook4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Paul Gordon at pgordon6@bloomberg.net, Fergal O'Brien

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