* Slovaks see Trichet's successor coming from Germany
* Finance minister: not good idea to use EFSF to buy debt
* Slovaks against EU joint tax base for corporate profits
(Adds details, background, qoutes)
By Martin Santa
BRATISLAVA, Feb 23 (Reuters) - The successor to European
Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet will most likely come
from Germany, Slovak Finance Minister Ivan Miklos said on
Wednesday.
"I think it is most likely that the political agreement will
be that it will be Germany, if it proposes an acceptable
candidate," Miklos told reporters.
Bundesbank president Axel Weber, long seen as front-runner
to replace Trichet at the helm of the ECB, withdrew his
candidacy last week.
Italy's Mario Draghi, who has played a leading role in
coordinating global financial regulation as chairman of the
Financial Stability Board, is the likely frontrunner to succeed
Trichet, according to a Reuters poll. []
However, other potential candidates include Germany's Klaus
Regling, who heads the European Financial Stability Facility
(EFSF). Regling holds orthodox German views on monetary policy
and fiscal discipline. []
Miklos, a fiscal hawk in Iveta Radicova's government, said
he was more-or-less against using EFSF funds to buy debt from
troubled euro zone economies, as suggested by some of the bloc's
members.
Miklos said Slovakia, which adopted the euro in January
2009, accepted the 'Competitiveness Pact' proposed by Germany
and France, but rejected a Union-wide harmonisation of the tax
base for corporate profits.
"Our fundamental problem is with the harmonisation of
corporate income tax. We fear that it is not realistic to reach
an agreement on the tax base that would not worsen the Slovak
tax system," Miklos said.
The central European country reiterated that key principles
for calculating future contributions to a permanent European
Stability Mechanism (ESM), intended to replace the EFSF in 2013,
should include gross domestic product (GDP), gross public debt
and the strength of a country's financial sector.
"That is very important to us and we will endorse this with
all our power," Miklos said, adding fellow small euro economies
Estonia and Slovenia shared this view.
The European Union is working to overhaul its budget rules,
improve economic policy coordination, strengthen its existing
rescue fund and to create a new, permanent resolution mechanism
to draw a line under the year-old sovereign debt crisis.
EU leaders hope such a package of measures will be agreed at
a summit on Mar. 24-25. With time running out, pressure is on to
secure a deal, with extra meetings now being planned to try to
clinch agreement. []
(Additional reporting by Petra Kovacova; editing by Michael
Winfrey and Ruth Pitchford)
