Alphabet, arithmetic play a role in ECB voting rights

By Krista Hughes

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Future euro zone central bankers will have to get out their calculators and dictionaries to work out how often they are entitled to vote at European Central Bank policy decisions.

Detailed plans published on Thursday set out rules on which countries will sit out of voting first and in which order under a new system due to kick in once three more countries adopt the euro.

The plan confirms that votes on setting the ECB's benchmark interest rate and other crucial policy decisions would swap around every month once the number of states in the bloc reaches 19, which Reuters polls suggest could happen in around 2014.

Under the plan, how often a governor votes will depend on the size of the country's economy, the health of its banking sector and the spelling of the country's name.

The schedule -- explained with colour-coded charts in the ECB's latest bulletin -- shows this can determine whether a governor from a smaller country is sidelined for as little as six meetings or as many as nine in a three-year period.

The ECB's Governing Council already numbers 22, with 16 national central bank governors and six Frankfurt-based Executive Board members, and could swell to 33 or more if all European Union members adopt the euro.

The schedule will bring in a three-tier voting system when the number of euro zone members reaches 19 and a four-tier system when it reaches 22, with Executive Board members always having a vote -- although decisions are normally made by consensus anyway, and all can take part in discussions.

In the first stage, the five biggest countries, currently Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands, would share four votes and the remaining 14 to 16 governors would share 11 votes.