EU parliament endorses Lagarde as new central bank head

The European Parliament has endorsed the nomination of Christine Lagarde to serve an eight-year term as the next president of the European Central Bank, Report informs citing foreign media.

The non-binding vote Tuesday was 394 in favour and 206 against, with 49 abstentions.

Lagarde, 63, was nominated by European governments to succeed Mario Draghi on Nov. 1 as head of the central bank for the 19 European Union countries that use the euro. She last week resigned her previous job as head of the Washington-based International Monetary Fund.

The parliament and the ECB must give an opinion on the nomination but cannot block it. Lagarde has endorsed Draghi’s stimulus efforts aimed at raising inflation and growth in the wake of the eurozone debt crisis despite opposition in the currency union’s biggest member, Germany.